


Princess' Birthday

by Summer_Dusk



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Nia gets teased a LOT, Shenanigans, Tora is a bro, Zeke and Pandy make a glorious entrance, she's had it coming for being so obviously gay AF, shenanigans everywhere, sometimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 18:49:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15646785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Summer_Dusk/pseuds/Summer_Dusk
Summary: Almost a year has passed since Elysium was born. Nia lives with Tora in Torigoth now and life is... interesting to say the least. One day she and her friends receive invitations to a certain Ardainian's birthday celebration and things get even more interesting from there on out.





	1. Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> The only thing I wanted was to write a classic romantic ballroom dance - but SOMEHOW things exploded while writing XD Once I decided on a postgame setting I had ideas about Tora and Nia being housemates, lotsa shenanigans - you will see~  
> I actually intended this to be a companion piece to "Cat's Concert" which is why you will find references to that story in here, BUT you don't have to go back and read the other first, if you just accept my headcanon that Nia learned how to play the violin when she grew up as a lord's daughter XD Everything else you can get from context.
> 
> This is actually a oneshot in my file, but I uploaded it in different chapters for better readabilty, and because I feel like there is a LOT going on in each segment XD

Nia awoke to the sound of a small explosion and two distraught voices yelling “meh!meh-meh!”.

“Dadapon on fire!!”

“Don’t worry masterpon, Poppi will save Tatazo!”

The Flesh Eater frowned, her long ears twitching from the annoyance. She heard how someone was thrown into the tub of water that stood in the kitchen corner and grunted. She huddled deeper into the pile of pillows she called a bed and tried to cover her ears from the early morning commotion. Great, another attempt at upgrading Lila ending up in fire.

“Thank you very much, Poppi.”, she heard Tatazo say, a relieved sigh following soon thereafter. Maybe they’d shut it now…

“This no problem for Poppi.”, the artificial blade replied. Nia’s frown grew deeper and she clenched a fist.

“Meh, Lila unharmed.”, Tora reported. Her ears twitched again. Oh, how she hated Nopon voices in the morning.

“Good grief.”, Dromarch’s voice then said, he sounded very casual.

Nia clenched one of her pillows and thrusted it towards the voices. “Would you finally shut it?!”, she hissed.

“Oh, Nia awake.”, Tatazo seemed blissfully unaware of her little outburst.

“Whose fault do you think that is?!” She lifted herself up from the pile of pillows and glared down at her housemates.

“But Tora thought Nia is early bird.”, Tora said and looked upwards towards the loft where his room lay. Right next to it had been a spot where he had used to amass all kinds of clutter, but ever since Nia and Dromarch had decided to return with them to Torigoth after the world had been reborn, she had claimed the small space for herself: a carpet, a colourful bunch of pillows and a small self-made shelf and cabinet for her personal belongings had been all she had needed to make the space her own room.

“Nia would be an early bird if you let her bloody sleep the nights, for Architect’s sake!”, she shouted back at him. “Don’t you guys ever stop pottering around?”

“Science never take breaks!”, Tora replied excitedly and Nia only grunted.

There just was no talking to the lot of them. She descended the stairs to pick up the pillow she had thrown away, incidentally noticing that Tatazo was still floating in the wooden tub with no care in the world. So much for going back to bed. Nia was too worked up now to fall asleep again.

A year.  
Almost a year had passed and she still hadn’t gotten used to living under the same roof as the two Nopon, their artificial blades and Dromarch. She had known that it wouldn’t be easy with the lot of them, but she had thought she’d get used to it eventually.

It wasn’t _that_ bad most of the time: Poppi and Lila kept the place tidy (even if they’d sometimes try to put some order into Nia’s pillow chaos for which she’d scold them, because how dare they enter her space without her consent and besides, she liked the arrangement very much this way) and they even cooked, even if Nia did not always agree with their tastes. Or rather, their driver’s tastes because they were the ones who had programmed the recipes into the blades.

But when father and son decided to tinker on their machines there was no stopping them. Clinking and cracking day in, day out, without any respect for their fellow housemates until it would end in disappointment (or an errant explosion) was the one thing Nia absolutely could not stand.

She threw the pillow back towards the loft and went on to make herself some breakfast. Nothing big, just some fruit and cereal with armu milk – because there was nothing else left.

“We need to get some groceries.” Nia sat down on a pillow by the table and began eating.

“Meh, meh, it Nia’s turn for shopping!”, Tora said and soon thereafter he disappeared back into the lab.

She glared through the wall towards the spot he was standing. “Again?”

“I’m afraid he is right, my lady.”, Dromarch said. He was lying beneath the loft and behind the ladder that led upwards. “Your name is indeed listed for some of today’s chores.”

“Hm, is that so…” She glanced over her shoulder, where they had put up a weekly calendar on the wall next to the kitchen sink. Indeed, it was her turn to go grocery shopping and to cook today’s meal. Poppi was assigned cleaning duty while Lila was responsible for the laundry. “Oh well, at least we don’t have to eat raw fruit and veggies…”, she mumbled. Because _that_ was what was always on the table when either Tora or Tatazo were responsible for making food.

“Oi, Lila, you better not shrink my clothes again.”, Nia shouted so that the artificial blade, who was still in the lab, could hear her.

“Positive.”, the robotic voice answered.

Nia still missed her yellow suit, but since she usually walked around as blade it did not matter much. Her replacement suit was the same make, just with white and pink stripes and a blue hood instead, so it did its job whenever she needed it.

Yup, living at Tora’s house had certainly claimed its victims. Though Nia liked to think that they had gotten better at living together – at least in some points.

She finished her breakfast and stood up. “Guess I’m off then.”, she announced.

“Do you require some company, my lady?”, Dromarch asked her.

She looked towards him, lying around lazily, and smiled softly. “Nah, thanks. It’s nice to be a bit on my own.” Her gaze wandered towards Poppi who excitedly watched Tora work on Lila and towards Tatazo who had finally made it out of the tub and re-joined the efforts. “Those scatterbrains can be a real handful after all.”

A baritone chuckle left Dromarch’s throat and he rested his head on his paws. “Hear, hear…”, he said with a suggestive expression towards his driver.

Nia narrowed her eyes at him but let the comment slide. “See ya.”, she said and left from the hidden entrance door.

She made her way towards the market over the bridges of the residential zone and passed by the chief’s residence. The weather was sunny, but the wind that blew was brisk, almost cold, as per usual for Gormott’s fall season. Not much had changed in Gormott since the titan had become one with the landmass dubbed Elysium; harvests were good, nature was still plentiful – a lot of people (mostly refugees) had set out to try their luck on Elysium itself and had built their own small villages and towns with the help of others.

The only thing Nia missed from time to time was the sight of the glowing World tree at night.

Life was good otherwise. Chaotic at times, considering that she shared most of it with Tora and his family, but deep inside she wouldn’t have it any other way. Tora always found ways to goad her and she always found ways to get back at him, something she had been especially grateful for during the first period of being separated from her other friends.

“Let’s see…”, she thought aloud as she eyed the selection on the market. “Wonder if the little furball would like ruska dumplings for lunch.” Tora had complained about Nia’s cooking quite often, Tatazo on the other hand loved it. Dromarch always said she had a unique way of combining and seasoning food and she could never tell if this was his nice way of saying her cooking sucked or if he really meant it like that.  
Nia did not care anyway. She was a splendid cook – from her point of view at least.

“Nia! Nia! Nia!”

“Hm?” Her ear twitched towards the voices and a moment later she looked into the direction and saw three Gormotti kids running towards her.

It was Izzi and his friends; the boy who Electra had involuntarily zapped during their journey and had unknowingly sent her on a quest of mastering her power so that she could make up with him again. For some reason, the children had taken a liking to her ever since she had started helping around town in order to make some money.

It was mostly her healing abilities that brought her jobs from either the militia or the Ardainian base; usually nothing serious: a monster attack here, an unlucky fall from heights there… Easily fixed things that got her the sympathy of Torigoth’s citizens – and a certain kind of fame.  
At first, she had been wary to run around in her true form, mostly because she had wanted to avoid comments about her core crystal, which gave away her secret of being a Flesh Eater, but in truth most people did not know enough about blades to actually catch onto that. And those who did had stopped staring at her after she either hissed at them and called them out or after she had healed them or a buddy of theirs.

In either case, the children had never cared.

She greeted them with a smile. “What’s with the fuss?”

“Nia!”, Izzi called her name again and stopped right in front of her, panting. He was holding a piece of cloth in his hands, with something wrapped inside it.

“W-we found this bird…!”, his female Gormotti friend tried to explain in between catching breaths.

Nia understood and carefully picked the cloth up and unwrapped it. It was a sparrow, who seemed to have had a very unlucky encounter with a cat. There was a nasty bleeding scratch on its belly, its feathers were ruffled and one of its wings stood out in a very unhealthy position.  
“That poor thing.”, she commented and immediately she put her hand over it and channelled her healing energy towards it.

The ether glowed blue and the children stood fascinated in front of her as she did her work.

When the glow faded away the bird moved its head, all chipper now. She removed the cloth fully and sure enough the sparrow took to the skies again.

“Thank you so much!”, Izzi said excitedly.

Nia gave him a fanged smirk. “Piece of cake.”

“You are so cool!”, his other male friend said.

“Hehe…”, she rubbed her nose, trying to not get flustered at the little children’s admiration. “Had a fun day so far?”

The trio nodded and then they began to tell her about how their newest round of hide and seek had gone: How Izzi had not found anyone even though they were hiding in plain sight on the trees, leaving his friends to snicker, even more so when he heard their chuckles and even looked at their direction, but hadn’t seen them because the leaves of the canopies had been too dense.

“Miss Nia?”, a male voice called out behind her and interrupted the children.

“Miss…?” She rose an eyebrow and turned around where she saw an Ardainian soldier standing in full gear. “Yeah, what’s it?”, she felt like she recognized the voice from somewhere.

The children stared at the soldier with open interest.

He took off his helmet and Nia recognized him as Jac, the Gormotti who had become a driver when she had entered Torigoth the very first time with Rex and Pyra in tow. “Ohh, it’s you!”, she made and smiled at him.

“It’s good to see you.”, Jac said and smiled back.

“Yeah, it’s certainly been a while.”, she commented. “What are you doing here? Visiting the family, yeah?”

“Kinda. I’m here on business, but while I’m at it I can check on my siblings and”, he was searching through his pockets now, “can deliver this to you.” He handed her four envelopes which she accepted with a surprised look on her face. She took the top one and turned it around: it had her name on it, written in Mòrag’s handwriting.

She smiled again. “You a mailman now?”

She’d recognize Mòrag’s handwriting in a heartbeat since all the time they had been apart, Mòrag had made sure to keep in contact over letters.

The first time Nia had received one she had not expected it.  
Tora had barged into the house with an excited look on his face, swinging his arms wildly while holding the letters with his wings. He never got mail usually, so it was understandable. Nia had already dismissed his behaviour with a wave of her hand, but then he had suddenly turned to her and told her she got a letter too. She had whipped it out from his wing immediately and opened it, her eyes widening with surprise when she had realized that it was from her friend.

At first Mòrag’s  letters had been very short and structured, always opening with “Dear Nia” and the question of how she was doing and sounding more like a report on the things at her end – letters always written in precise and short sentences.

Nia had mused that this was probably because Mòrag did not do this very often and that if she had to ever write something it would be reports to her superiors and sure enough, with each letter exchanged Mòrag’s texts became less stiff and formal and she talked about more personal things: how she was doing, how Niall was doing, how she had managed to be more of a sister to him lately – Nia also vividly remembered how Mòrag had stated her disdain over the Grand Marshall with some very colourful words in one of those. It was one of her favourite memories: reading the letter by the lamp’s light before going to sleep and not being able to stop snickering.

Nia always made it a point to answer as soon as possible, telling her about Tora’s antics, about her life in Gormott, about Dromarch and Poppi – and Mòrag’s answer always came like a clockwork a week later, usually making her day.

Tora on the other hand had not been so diligent in keeping up the correspondence, he had written back once and Mòrag had admitted in one of her other letters to Nia that it had taken her hours to decipher it, another occurrence that had Nia chuckle. Nia had answered that she needn’t worry about him and that he was very busy with coming up with new ways to blow his face up and that she would keep Mòrag updated. Mòrag still sent letters to Tora from time to time though, just because she knew how happy it made him to get mail, even if he forgot to answer.

“Nia?”, Jac asked her.

She blinked, having completely gotten lost in her thoughts. “Yeah?”

The children chuckled:   
“She was completely out of it just now.”  
“Do you think it’s a love letter?”  
“I bet, she was smiling from ear to ear just now!”

“I said that if you want to go to Mor Ardain, we could take you with us on our ship.”, the soldier said.

She rose an eyebrow. “Huh? What for?”

Jac chuckled softly over something she had clearly missed. “Why don’t you open the letter?”

And so she did.

“The Imperial royal court of Mor Ardain formally invites you to Princess Mòrag Ladair’s royal birthday celebration. The grand fete will take place at Hardhaigh Palace on the 8th of Amalthtober at 7 p.m. The honour of your presence is requested.”

Nia’s eyes widened when she read the beginning. _Princess?!_

She read through the invitation three times, always getting hung up on the word “princess”. When she got over her surprise she just laughed out loud.  
No way this was done with Mòrag’s consent, but she _was_ part of the royal bloodline so Nia could imagine very well that politics had had their influences in making the celebration happen. This also explained the other three envelopes: Tora, Poppi and Dromarch surely had their own invitation too.

“What was this about coming aboard your ship?”

“Lady Mòrag herself asked of me to deliver these to you and to tell you that if you wish to come to Mor Ardain sooner than later I shall make sure you get a place on board.”, Jac then explained.

“She did?” Now how to ask best whether ‘you’ meant her alone or included the others too…

Jac nodded. “She recognised me during the Sargent’s exam, even though I was of only little help when we investigated that murder…”, he told her. “And not only that: she also made sure that my next mission would be in Torigoth so that I could see my family. She is really great.”

Nia smiled softly when she heard that. “Yeah, she is…”, she agreed and held the letters close to her heart.

“Hah! Izzi was right, she is totally in love!”, the little girl suddenly said.

Nia winced and then blushed. “Oi, you wanna get an ass-whooping?!”, she snapped at them.

The three children only laughed and dashed away. “Nia is in love, Nia is in love ~”, she could hear them sing.

“OI!”, she yelled angrily after them, but it was no use. “Get your arses back here or so Architect help me!”

Jac only laughed. “We will stay for a week.”, he then said. “Let me know if you and the others will come back with us and I will arrange something.”

Nia turned back to him, her face all red. “Sure, I will ask them and tell you.”

Jac nodded and then looked towards where the children had run off to. “Lady Mòrag seemed quite eager at the prospect of seeing her friends again.”, he commented with an amused smile.

“Oh, did she now?” Nia could hardly imagine Mòrag being so transparent around her soldiers.

“In her own way.”, Jac gave her a sideways glance. “She went out of her way to ask me to find _you_ after all.”

“She did?”, Nia felt her face grow warm and when Jac gave her a sly little grin, she knew that her expression had said more than she had intended to. She glared at him, ready to shout once again but the young driver just saluted and quickly made his way towards the Ardainian base.

 

* * *

 

 

“I’m back!”, Nia announced when she returned with two paper bags full of groceries. She put them on the kitchen counter and sorted the food in its respective baskets and shelves.

“Welcome.”, Poppi said and walked up to her to help her with putting the groceries away.

Nia smiled as thanks. “You guys, guess who I saw at the market today.”, she began telling.

Tora poked his head out of the laboratory. “Tasty Sausage Man?”

Nia turned to him with an indignant look. “Who the bloody hell is that supposed to be?”

“Is vendor of Nopon dreams! Only sells the tastiest tasty sausages!”

“Oi, are you sure you didn’t dream that one up?”, Nia had _never_ heard of anyone like that before. Ever. She grunted and continued on: “No, it was Jac.”

“The young man we saw become a driver?”, Dromarch asked curiously.

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

Tora stroke his chin with one his wings, as if in deep thought. Then it seemed to dawn on him. “Oh, it that guy in Mor Ardain! Who was at hot springs crime scene and his dadapon got exiled!”, he remembered. “What he say?”

Nia smirked when the question came and skilfully threw the invitation like a dagger towards him. Tora caught the letter with ease, and Nia handed Poppi her own normally. Dromarch’s interest was piqued now and he walked out of his place behind the ladder.

“You also got one.”; Nia told him and showed him the envelope with his name on it.

“Interesting, who might the sender be?”, he wondered as he read his own name.

Nia just grinned and waited for the reaction that had yet to come.

“Meh?? Meh-meh??” Tora just made. Dromarch looked curiously towards him.

The Nopon looked completely flabbergasted. “Friend Mòrag is _princess_??”

Nia laughed out loud.

“Masterpon, that not important information from letter.”, Poppi said as her eyes moved along the lines.

“Ah.”, Dromarch only made. “It’s from the empire.” He looked towards his driver who opened the letter for him and held it in front of his eyes so that he could read it.

“So Lady Mòrag celebrates her birthday in three weeks.”, the white tiger noted.

Nia nodded. “Yep, and we are all invited.”

“Seems like very big event.”, Poppi commented. “Invitation sound very formal and impersonal.”

“I’d assume it is.”, Dromarch agreed. “Lady Mòrag is of royal blood after all, which means there will be a lot of influential politicians attending.”

“I bet she _loves_ celebrating with all those fancy snots.”, Nia still couldn’t wipe the smirk of her face. “I’m sure we are the only people attending she actually cares about.”

The comment brought a smile to Poppi’s face. “Means we are very important to her, right?”

Dromarch nodded. “Indeed.”

Somewhere in the background Tora’s soul still hadn’t returned to his body after reading that invitation. Nia frowned when she saw him lying on the ground. She approached the Nopon and squatted down next to him.  
“What’s with you?”, she poked him in the side, but Tora was unresponsive. Nia then shrugged and turned her attention back to Poppi and Dromarch.

“Anyway, Jac said he could arrange a lift for us if we wanted to visit early on.”, she went on to explain. “I wanted to give him an answer as soon as possible, so… what do you guys wanna do?”

Dromarch and Poppi exchanged a glance. “I will go with whatever you decide, my lady.”, Dromarch answered.

Nia only smiled at that. Of course he would have done that. “Well, then our case is clear: I’m certainly going earlier!”

Dromarch nodded with a smile. “I’m sure you’ve missed Lady Mòrag.”

Nia may have blushed a little. “Well, I haven’t seen her in almost a year, that’s natural!” She then looked towards Poppi. “What about you?”

Suddenly, Tora arose from the almost-dead again before his blade could give a response. His unexpected movement made Nia jump in surprise. “Tora need birthday present!!”, the Nopon exclaimed frantically.

“I’m sure Mòrag doesn’t care all that much about presents…”, Nia replied with a frown.

“Is good way to show appreciation for letters!”, Tora insisted.

“You wouldn’t have to if you just answered every once in a while…”

Tora didn’t listen to her reasoning. Instead he scurried back to his lab and the trio heard him rummaging through his documents. “Aha!”, he made, “Tora knew had unfinished draft of this super-useful-thingy somewhere!”

Nia, arms crossed now, and Dromarch cocked their heads in unison. “What is it? Show us!”, the Flesh Eater insisted.

Tora poked his head out of the lab with a serious expression. “It classified!”

Nia sighed. “We can just come into your lab anytime, you are aware of that, right?”

“Need to finish construction plan! And construct! Will take at least two weeks!” He looked towards Poppi. “Will need Poppi’s assistance to make gift in time!”

The artificial blade smiled brightly at that. Excitedly, she joined her driver behind the lab’s curtain and Tora started mumbling something to her that Nia couldn’t catch from where she was.  
“So… you’re not gonna come with us to Mor Ardain at the end of the week?”

“Nia crazy?? This highest priority right now!”

“Sheesh, alright, I get it.” Nia frowned. “I guess that’s settled then…”, she concluded and went to the kitchen to finally start cooking lunch.

“Nia not gonna make Mòrag present?”, Poppi’s voice asked.

Nia’s ears twitched. “I dunno, I don’t think she is the type who cares about that…”, she answered, but seeing Tora and Poppi go all out on this started to make her feel bad. She took a few potatoes out and began to cut them.

Tora’s head appeared behind the wooden wall. “Nia should make present! Can show how much Nia loves Mòrag!”

The words caught the blade off guard and she cut into her finger. She supressed a painful cry and a curse and turned angrily back to the Nopon. “What’s that supposed to mean, huh?!”

Tora’s Nopon eyes had a smug glint in them. “What Nia mean? If friend loves friend in a friend way then should let friend know.”, he said all that while raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Nia stared flatly at him while she healed her bleeding cut. She had the feeling that Tora had said the word ‘friend’ one too many times. The hand that held the knife twitched dangerously.

“Tora definitely not notice that Nia rereads letters every night.” He disappeared again.

“Oi, you wanna say something to my face??” Nia ran to the lab space, knife still in hand.

Dromarch perked up and ran after her to prevent the worst. “My lady!”

“Mehmeh! Poppi save Tora!”, the white tiger heard.

“Poppi not sure if masterpon deserves saving after such jab…”

 

* * *

 

“Hm…”

It was late evening now and Nia had made herself comfortable in between her pillows while she skimmed through the letters she had received from Mòrag over the year, trying to find clues as to what she could get the Ardainian for her birthday. Sure, it would be a fancy ass royal celebration, most likely even organized against Mòrag’s wishes, but after thinking about it she came to the conclusion that Mòrag would appreciate a small gift nevertheless. At least when it came from a friend and with genuine intent behind it.

Nothing she read gave her any idea on what she could get her though. No mention of any book she may have enjoyed or any current trends in Mor Ardain, whether it be food or fashion (but then again, Nia should’ve known better than to expect Mòrag to keep up with these things). Not even the slightest smudge of ink that could’ve indicated that she was in need of a new pen.

Nia sighed and her ears twitched softly when she heard Tora’s first snore of the night. At least he had gone to sleep early tonight, that way she’d get some decent shut eye too.

Finding a present for Mòrag would not be easy. She was not the type who liked or had use for little trinkets and finding something useful was even harder. What would someone like Mòrag even consider useful? A weapon? As if she would need another one, what with all the blade weapons she had. A pen was the closest to a good idea she had, but what if Mòrag did not need a new one? What if her current one was some fancy family heirloom or a gift she had gotten from her brother? She’d never use anything else if that was the case.

“Ugh.”

Maybe she should just walk up to her and announce that their time together would be her present.  
Nia blushed.  
No, that was stupid.

She shook her head and continued reading the letters.

_Dear Nia,_

_I hope you are doing fine. The situation in Mor Ardain is the same as in my last letter. Trade has grown between the nations and I find myself noticing more and more imported goods from Gormott, Tantal and Uraya on the market. Travelling merchants and performers roam the streets of Alba Cavanich more frequently now, one of them a Gormotti band which I happened to see on my way to the palace the other day. They were two men and a woman, playing the Torigonda and the Koto, while the woman sang and danced to the music. They had captivated the Ardainian crowd in a manner that reminded me of the afternoon we spend together in Torigoth. I’m sure you know which I’m referring to: the one where you had played music for us on the fiddle and had enchanted not only me, but all the people present. Are you playing music more often now than during our travels? I certainly hope so_.

Nia’s gaze softened when she read through the letter again. Of course she remembered that day. It had been the day where she had met the daughter of Càit, the woman who had taught her to play so well. It had been one of the most carefree days they had spent together on that journey. She smiled fondly when she remembered the dance she had shared with Mòrag, a typical Gormotti folkdance, and how Mòrag had expressed interest in learning it properly. They had maybe stolen away in the evenings once or twice to practice, but things had escalated quickly, what with them falling into Morytha and having to climb the World Tree to face Malos. They had gone separate ways after their final fight, so not much had become of that proposition.

She skimmed through the rest of the letter, it being a response to Tora’s latest antics and Nia’s complain about how the Ardainian soldiers were too stupid to fight against a pack of Rapchors and her eyes lingered a bit on the letter ending:

_Love,  
_ _Mòrag_

It was a set phrase. Nia also signed her letters with that one, but she couldn’t help but get flustered every time she decided to end her texts with it. She had considered changing it to “regards” or “best wishes” but then she thought that it would seem odd if she suddenly did that, so she didn’t.

She yawned tiredly and put the letters away in the drawer of the small cabinet she had built for herself. She blew the candle inside her lamp out and lied down, the words of the letter still on her mind: _and had enchanted not only me, but all the people present._

Mòrag had really taken a liking to her music back then, hadn’t she? Nia’s lips turned into a happy smile while the idea for a perfect birthday present came into her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason I went with 8th Amalthtober for the birthday date is NOT because it is the only month name we canoncially know, but because I saw a vid on the different translations in the dub and it was said that instead of Amalthtober the month was just referred as the ninth in the Japanese dub, in the same way they do in real life, meaning it would be September - and Mòrag is a textbook Virgo sooo 8th September basically (the 8th because random number generator).
> 
> As for her title as princess: I talked with Ikasury about it and it basically boiled down to "How else would you refer to the Emperor's sister?" XD Besides, it's fun~


	2. Reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mòrag anxiously awaits Nia's arrival, but a lot of things don't go as expected...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credits to Ikasury for giving me the idea of Zeke's and Pandy's GLORIOUS appearance XD It was so hilariously them that I just had to go with that~

Port Anangham was busy as expected. Ships landed by the docks while others departed and the workers were amidst everything, moving the freights to and from the ships.

Mòrag was overviewing everything from an elevated platform, standing perfectly still in parade rest, while her eyes kept wandering towards the empty first dock. She knew that a certain ship from Gormott was scheduled to arrive there today and part of her felt silly that she had gone to the port far earlier than the expected arrival time.

She had considered on and off on whether she should welcome her friends personally by the harbour, since that would mean she’d either have to take the day off or reschedule all of her appointments. Initially, she had decided against it, but after hearing from Jac that only Nia and Dromarch would come earlier, the matter had been on the table once again.

Brighid response to her driver’s indecision had been to only chuckle amusedly at something Mòrag hadn’t quite grasped. _I will attend the council in your stead, Lady Mòrag_ , she had said, _please go to the docks and greet your friends_. The smirk on Brighid’s face was the one Mòrag usually knew from teasing and snide comments at her expense, but Mòrag hadn’t quite understood what exactly it had been that had prompted this expression on her blade’s face.

Maybe it was the fact the she had reconsidered her decision after hearing that only Nia would arrive with Dromarch. Mòrag had an idea about what Brighid may have thought then, but she swore, it wasn’t like that. If Nia had arrived with Tora, then it would have been them and their blades – four persons – and now she was almost alone… Mòrag just wanted to be a good host and not let her guests roam around alone. That was all. She had certainly not felt a new rush of excitement at the prospect of having some time with Nia alone before the others came. Not at all.

The ship she had been awaiting was about to moor at the dock. Finally, it had arrived. Mòrag felt how her heart started to beat a bit faster.  
A completely natural reaction, she tried to tell herself. After all, she had not seen Nia in almost a year now. Surely, she would have felt like this for _any_ of her friends. Her eyes were glued to the exits of the ship now.

Nia should be easy to spot amidst all the uniformed soldiers, especially with Dromarch accompanying her…

“Special Inquisitor!”, a voice behind her called out.

There was a minute frown on Mòrag’s face as she turned away from the docks and faced the saluting soldier. “What is it?”, she asked him.

“It seems like a Nopon merchant arrived without documents. He claims that a monster ate them.”, he reported.

Mòrag tried to keep a neutral expression on her face. This soldier was obviously a rookie if he had no experience on how to handle such things. “Well, he must have come from somewhere. Check if he is affiliated with any trading guilds. If he has acquired a merchant’s licence then this must be documented somewhere.”, she told him. Best to just be patient and give him a clear answer, then he’d leave quickly.

“What shall we do with him until we have confirmation of his identity?”

This time Mòrag did not bother hiding her frown. “Place him under detention, soldier. Do not leave him out of sight.”, she answered sternly.

“O-of course!”, the young man saluted and was off again.

Mòrag watched him leave and suddenly she understood Nia’s complains in numerous letters regarding the Ardainian soldiers stationed in Torigoth.

She felt someone’s gaze upon her back and a mere moment later she noticed a quick movement in the corner of her eye. Out of reflex, Mòrag evaded whoever had been charging at her, leaving the culprit to land against the railing with a loud clonk.

Mòrag’s brown eyes widened when she recognized the silky beige hair and the Gormotti ears.

“Ow-ow-ow…!”, she heard Nia’s voice say as the Gormotti pressed her hands on her hurting forehead. She was in her driver form, sporting a white and pink coloured suit which was very similar to her old one. She also carried some sort of case on her back.

Mòrag pressed her lips together in a thin line to hide her bewilderment. Great, the first thing she did after not seeing Nia in a year was to evade her like some enemy and hurt her in the process. It was a reflex and for the very first time in her entire career Mòrag regretted having it.

“That how you greet a friend??”, Nia stood up and turned around with an angry expression.

“I could ask you the same.”, Mòrag replied while taking on her usual stance, part of her still trying to process Nia’s sudden appearance. “What were you trying to achieve by sneaking up and jumping at me like that?”, she did not want to sound accusatory, but she was used to keeping a certain persona on her at all times, even if something unexpected happened. Or rather, _especially_ , when something unexpected happened.

“I – I wasn’t sneaking!”, was Nia’s only reply. Still no explanation on the jump though.

Mòrag held her gaze against Nia’s frustrated look: The frown, the twitching ears, the narrowed golden eyes… Mòrag couldn’t keep the smile off her face, Nia was just… her usual rowdy self. Oh, how Mòrag had missed her antics.

When Nia noticed her smile, her own expression turned softer too.

“You haven’t changed at all.”

There was a moment of surprised silence in which the two of them noticed that they had said the same words at the same time.

Nia snorted and Mòrag chuckled lightly in response.

“It’s good to see you.”, the Special Inquisitor said eventually.

Nia rubbed her cheek sheepishly. “Yeah, it is.”

It was then when Dromarch decided to join them. “Lady Mòrag.”, he stepped up next to his driver and greeted her with a smile.

“Dromarch.”, Mòrag greeted him with a smile as well. “I hope you have been well.”

The white tiger nodded. “I’m surprised to see you here. My lady and I were sure that you would have too much work on your plate to greet us personally.”

“Oh, that…”, Mòrag felt herself grow nervous. “Brighid offered to attend some matters in my stead.”, she answered matter-of-factly and hoped that they wouldn’t pry further.

“Ah, I see. That is why she isn’t with you…”, Dromarch only replied. His voice may have sounded a bit disappointed.

Mòrag nodded. “She will be free in the evening.”, she added and then looked towards the direction Alba Cavanich lay. “Shall we go then?”

“Sure.”, Nia replied and Dromarch only nodded.

They made their way eastwards to the cargo transportation zone, where the elevators leading towards Alba Cavanich lay.

Nia looked at the landscape around them with open curiosity. Mor Ardain was so much greener than she remembered it being. Sure, there were still the rugged cliffs and rocks, but there was grass growing over everything now, and _actual_ flowers too, of the pretty and colourful kind. She had known of this development, Mòrag had mentioned it more than once in her letters, but seeing it with her own two eyes was something entirely different. Gormott had not changed much in the time that had passed.

“I see you have brought some luggage with you.”, Mòrag commented.

“Hm?”, Nia was jerked out of her admiration of the land’s development. She looked over her shoulder and towards the case that she had strapped over her back. “Oh, _that_. Yeah, nothing fancy, just some stuff I will need later on.”

Mòrag was curious. “Oh? What would that be?”

Nia focused her gaze on the way in front of them again. “J-just the little everyday necessities.”, she sounded _very_ evasive. Mòrag was not satisfied at all with that answer.

“Formal attire?”, the Ardainian guessed.

For some reason Dromarch chuckled now.

Nia winced visibly. After a moment of consideration she said: “I-I don’t need formal attire, my true form looks fancy enough, don’t ya think?”, her eyes were still dead set on a patch of flowers in front of them.

“Indeed, your blade form looks very elegant and beautiful.”, Mòrag answered without a second thought.

Nia’s ears perked up and she turned her head towards the Ardainian with a surprised look on her face, her cheeks a deep red.

Mòrag stared back at her, not understanding for a moment why Nia looked so flustered, until the response replayed in her mind. Mòrag felt her cheeks grow warm and cleared her throat in an attempt to hide her own awkwardness. “I – I mean, it’s certainly appropriate for the festivities.”, she tried to rectify her response.

Nia’s gold eyes blinked and then she turned her attention once again to the road.  
“S-see?”, she only said.

Suddenly, the conversation had died down and while Nia was glad that Mòrag had stopped prying further about the contents of her bag, she couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward now. She inconspicuously cast a sideways glance to the woman walking by her side. Why did she even feel awkward? She had only been called elegant and beautiful by a close friend – nothing to it. Absolutely normal stuff. Mòrag thought of her as beautiful…  
Nia felt her blush deepen again. Nothing. To. It…  
She looked helplessly towards Dromarch, hoping that he would find a way to jumpstart the conversation again.

Dromarch interpreted his driver’s look right in an instant. “Lady Mòrag”, he began, “we’ve been wondering how those festivities came to be in the first place. You don’t seem the type to indulge in pompous celebrations.”

The question brought an annoyed frown to the Special Inquisitor’s face. “You’re right, unfortunately though I didn’t have much of a say in this matter.”, she answered and then she went on to entertain the two of them with her little feud with the senate; how they were trying to use the fact that she had partaken in saving the world to make Mor Ardain – and by expansion themselves – look superior to the rest of the nations and how Mòrag had refused to take part in this and had deliberately sunk every claim to fame they had tried to make by simply telling the truth.

Since politics were power games, played mostly behind the scenes all the while keeping up appearances at the same time, official celebrations like this were nothing unusual. Her birthday too, was just another opportunity for politicians to ingratiate themselves with one another. She herself had not intended to celebrate it in any way or manner, because Mor Ardain struggled still with the aftermaths of their titan almost dying and the new world around them still developing and growing.

The senate, however, had had other plans and so, about two weeks ago, when she had attended the council the first thing that had been announced were the preparations for said birthday celebration and how things were already underway.

From there on out she had not been able to protest much against this. Especially because the senate had gone behind her back and gotten Niall’s approval first.  _“It will be a good opportunity for you to relax for an evening. You’ve worked very hard this past year.”_ , he had said with a very disarming smile.

“So this is some kind of revenge, because you did not allow them to claim our achievements as their own.”, Dromarch summarized.

“Pretty much.”, Mòrag confirmed.

They were by the town elevators now, waiting for one of them to arrive on their floor.

Nia frowned and crossed her arms. “If that’s the case then I can’t imagine why we would be on the guest list at all.”

Mòrag smiled slyly at this. “Because it is still _my_ birthday.”, she simply said and stepped into the elevator.

Nia followed her with an amused grin. “So, did you invite us to spite the senate or because it would be more bearable having people around that you actually like?”

“Because I’d love to celebrate my birthday with my dear friends obviously.”, Mòrag answered while she pressed the button to bring them up as soon as Dromarch had entered.

Nia snorted and the conversation came to an end when the elevator ascended.

“Where are we going anyway? The palace? The inn?”, the Gormotti inquired after they stepped out of the elevator again.

“The palace. As my guests I’ve arranged appropriate quarters for everyone.”

Nia rose her eyebrows. “Oh? So we gonna be next-door-neighbours or what?”

Mòrag seemed amused at the prospect. “Unfortunately everyone’s rooms will be located in the guest wing.”  

Nia’s ears drooped a bit. “Yeah, that makes sense...”

“However”, Mórag added when she saw her friend’s disappointment, “you will have special permission to roam freely around the palace and thus visit me if you want too.”

Nia’s ears perked up again and she smiled brightly, maybe a bit too happy at the prospect. A moment later the happy smile was gone and she shrugged, pretending to not care about this revelation. “You gonna be off working most of the time anyway, yeah?”

There may have been a guilty flush of red on Mòrag’s cheeks now. “Well that…” Mòrag decided in that moment that the shops they were passing by were far more interesting than Nia’s face. “I made efforts to clear my schedules in the evenings.”

Hearing this, Nia looked towards Mòrag again, even though the woman was still looking at the shops to her left hand side. “S-so… we could go out tonight?”, she inquired as casually as possible. “You know, for a bit of talking – catching up and stuff, yeah?”

Mòrag nodded. “We could go to the hot springs and eat dinner afterwards.”, she suggested.

All of a sudden Nia’s cheeks turned red. “Oh, um, that sounds great.” An embarrassed and very uncharacteristic chuckle left her throat and she wanted to punch herself for it. Instead she bit her lower lip and scolded herself inwardly. She turned to Dromarch who stared flatly at her and then shook his head.  
She mouthed a silent and sharp _what?_! at him. Even without the voice her indignation was clear as day.  
  
Dromarch decided to say nothing. And Mòrag apparently had not caught on to any of Nia’s weird behaviour.

Mòrag led them to the palace, making sure the guards were aquatinted with the Gormotti driver and blade and showed them how to make their ways around the quarters. When they arrived at the guest wing she showed Nia and Dromarch to their room.

“This is it.”, the Ardainian said and stopped in front of one of the many doors along the corridor.

“Thanks.”

“Thank you, Lady Mòrag.”

Mòrag handed Nia the keys to the room. “I will see you later then.”

“Yeah…” Nia examined the key given to her. “Oh, what time?”, she remembered to ask.

“I will try to be finished by 7 p. m.”, Mòrag answered. “I will come back to meet you here, so you needn’t wait in case I’m running late.”

Nia nodded. “Alright, it’s a date then.”, she said without thinking. Realizing what she said, she wanted to slap herself for that. Then again, that was a common expression, right? _Right_?

Mòrag’s cheeks turned pink. “I-indeed. A time and date, all we need to meet up.” She straightened her posture and gave them both a nod. “Until later then.”, she said and left.

“S-see ya…” was the only thing Nia managed to get out.

When she was out of sight Dromarch let out a heavy sigh and gave his driver a very stern look.

Nia glared back. “Just don’t.”, she told him.

 

* * *

 

Nia had done a pretty good job at occupying herself over the rest of the day. She had mostly prepared Mòrag’s present, while Dromarch had lied down and listened to her playing the fiddle.

When it knocked on the door at 7 p. m. sharp they both startled.  
“Shit, I hope she didn’t hear anything.” Nia quickly scrambled to put the violin and the music sheets back into the case and then dashed to open the door.

It was Brighid. Alone.  
“Hey, Brighid…where is Mòrag?”, the Gormotti asked immediately. Then she remembered that she hadn’t seen Brighid in over a year and added: “I mean, um, I’m very happy to see you. It’s been a while.”

Brighid did not seem to mind the awkward greeting. “It’s good to see you, Nia.”, she replied with an amused smile. “As for Lady Mòrag, she still has to take care of something and will be about thirty minutes late.”

“That is very unfortunate…”, Dromarch said and stepped up next to his driver. He bowed his head to greet Brighid. “Did Lady Mòrag send you ahead to inform us of the delay?”

“Yes.”, Brighid simply stated. “Admittedly though, I have no intention of joining the two of you in the hot springs.”, she went on to explain.

“Heh, fire elemental blade, I understand.”, Nia commented.

Brighid nodded. “And since Dromarch can’t attend either, due to the different bathing times for the males and females, I wanted to propose an alternative pastime for the two of us – and then we could meet for dinner with our drivers.”

Nia almost felt guilty that she had forgotten the fact that their blades should have joined them in the first place, since it was always a given they accompanied their drivers. Her eyes went from Brighid to Dromarch and suddenly she grinned and patted the white tiger’s back. “I think that’s a great idea! You wouldn’t exactly enjoy yourselves waiting for us to be finished.”

Dromarch nodded. “A splendid proposal, Lady Brighid.”, he agreed with a smile.

“Then it is agreed.”, Brighid said. “Nia, would it be alright for you if the two of us went ahead already?”

“Sure. I can occupy myself for half an hour, no problem.” Nia gave them a thumbs up. She was sure Dromarch would enjoy some time alone with someone of his kind, someone calm and refined, on his level of intellect – as opposed to the daily chaos at Tora’s house he had dealt with for the longest while now. Nia was happy that he finally got the break he deserved. “Have fun you two.”

Brighid smiled. “Thank you, I hope you and Lady Mòrag will enjoy yourselves as well.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure.” Nia waved goodbye at them as they left and as soon as they were out of sight she froze. “W-wait, so it will be just the two of us?”, she thought aloud. “At the springs??”

 

* * *

 

 

Just as Brighid had announced before, Mòrag came by to pick Nia up exactly thirty minutes later.

When Nia opened the door again she had been flabbergasted. Mòrag had changed from her uniform into casual clothing: a buttoned white shirt and a pair of black pants. No hat, no insignias, no armour. Just the hair was still neatly put in a bun. Nia just stared at everything, eyeing Mòrag from head to toe with her mouth agape.

Of course Nia’s reaction didn’t go by unnoticed by the off-duty inquisitor. Her cheeks turned pink and she cleared her throat. “Shall we be off then?”, she asked and prevented Nia from commenting on any of this.

“Y-yeah, of course.”, Nia replied and tried to tear her eyes from the sight. She closed the door behind her and off they went.

Alba Cavanich was filled with life. The shops were still opened, with their wares displayed on the street, people sat in restaurants and cafes, some of which Nia did not remember from the last time she had been to the capital and there were some traveling merchants too, just as Mòrag had described in one of her letters. A Nopon band was playing music and people had gathered to listen to them. The sun was about to set and some shops had already lit up street lights for the night. A warm breeze wafted through the streets.

The atmosphere felt completely different from before Elysium’s birth. The city was relaxed, the people were laughing and enjoying themselves and she saw many visitors from other nations too.

“Wow, when you wrote to me how things were here I did not expect _that_.”, Nia commented while they walked leisurely the streets, stopping every once in a while at a shop to look at the trinkets displayed.

“Why not? I told you that trade is going well and that the shops are more faceted now and I also mentioned more people visiting.”, Mòrag replied.

“Well, yeah, but you made it sound so…” Nia stopped and tried to find a word that wouldn’t sound offending. Dull? Lacklustre? No, she couldn’t say that. Lifeless? Nah. “I dunno, I just imagined things differently.”, she said instead.

“I guess it is a bigger change than you expected.”, the Ardainian commented and Nia only nodded in agreement.

They made their way to Jakolo’s inn. Even non-guests were allowed to use their hot springs in exchange for a small fee at the reception. It had been their number one choice, mainly because it had a good reputation and because they had wanted to meet with their blades at a nearby restaurant afterwards.

Nia grew nervous when she found herself in the changing room. She stole a glance or two at Mòrag, to check where the Ardainian was looking at, and started to unzip only when she was sure that Mòrag was too busy undressing.   
_Ugh, why am I like this? We are both women! Nothing to it. I had no qualms last time with Mythra and Poppi!  
_ She slid her suit down her shoulders and when it came to removing her underwear she glanced once again at Mòrag – who was also just in her underwear now.

The first thing Nia noticed where the scars on the Ardainian’s back. There were three very large ones, looking like the claw marks of a large beast. There were also several smaller marks from fully healed injuries, indicated by a skin tone that was much lighter than the rest.

The second thing she noticed where the muscles. Mòrag’s whole body was toned and Nia felt herself staring too long at the other woman’s legs and back. Until Mòrag turned around and looked her right in the eyes.

Nia blushed and wondered if it was a good idea to immediately avert her gaze or if that would give away that she may have stared for too long. _Don’t look down. Do NOT look at those abs…_ She turned her back to Mòrag, because she knew she would not have been able to hold her gaze for much longer. What she did not catch though, was that Mòrag had averted her gaze at the same time, a faint blush on her cheeks.

They covered themselves with a towel and went out to the water without commenting on anything.

As expected, they were not alone. Two Nopon ladies were already relaxing in the water, as well as a trio of teenage friends and two middle aged women. Nia slid quickly into the spring, in order to avoid any more awkwardness that came to her with being naked.  
“Ah…” She closed her eyes and leaned her back against the edge of the pool. The water was so warm and relaxing… She sank into it until the water reached up to her chin.

She heard Mòrag enter the water next to her and opened her eyes only when she was sure that the other woman had settled down. “It’s been a while since the last time.”, Mòrag commented and leaned back as well.

“How long?”, Nia asked curiously.

“It was when we still travelled together.”

“Eh, seriously? I don’t remember you bathing with us.”

Mòrag put a hand on her chin while she thought about it. Suddenly, her gaze turned annoyed. “That’s probably because Tora dragged Zeke, Rex and me to the bath when it was bathing time for the males.”, she answered with a frown.

Nia snorted. “Wait, he didn’t know you were a woman?”

Mòrag’s frown grew deeper. “No. He insisted we take a bath as bonding time between guys.”

Nia then remembered Tora’s shocked reaction when he found out Mòrag was a princess. She had thought that this was because ‘princess’ was not a word any of them would have associated with Mòrag, but… “Wait, wait, wait.”, she interrupted. “You _did_ tell him you are a woman, right?”

Suddenly, Mòrag looked very meek. “Well…”

Nia just stared at her. “You didn’t?!” So Tora actually hadn’t known until a few days back that their friend had been female all along? Now that explained the exaggerated reaction.

“He – he was starting to blame himself… he thought I didn’t want to take a bath with them because I hated him…”, the Ardainian tried to explain. “I didn’t want him to think that, so…”

“So you did him the favour?” Nia’s eyes went wide when she realized something. “You actually bathed with the guys?!” She didn’t know what to do with this revelation. How had Tora not known then that she was a woman?

“I kept my clothes on.”, Mòrag then clarified, her cheeks had turned red.

Nia needed a moment to process the mental image. Suddenly she broke out in broad laughter. “I didn’t know you could be so awkward.”, she said and tried to wipe the tears away. “I would have just straight up told him as it was.”

“I… I wanted to. I actually don’t know how the conversation derailed so much.” Mòrag sighed. “At some point I just didn’t bother anymore with trying to tell him.” With this, she ended the conversation and crossed her arms, face still flushed.

Nia was still chuckling. “Oh, you…” She noticed the red hue on the Ardainian’s face and grinned slyly. “Who would’ve thought that you could be so cute?”

“C-cute?” Mòrag was surprised. She had been called many things, but cute? No one had ever referred to her as such. She felt her blush deepen and averted her gaze from Nia. She closed her eyes and pretended to be relaxing.

Nia was still struggling to regain her composure. “Oi, don’t tell me you’re embarrassed now.” She approached the Ardainian and poked in the abs with her elbow.

“You certainly seem to be enjoying my discomfort.”, Mòrag said dryly.  

“Aww, come on. I’m just kidding.” Nia stopped pestering her. “It’s actually nice… To see this other side of yours, I mean.” Her snarky grin turned into a soft smile. “When we travelled together there was so much pressure, what with saving the world and all that crap. You were so serious all the time, and justifiably so.”, she explained and pulled her legs close. “After everyone returned to their home I thought we’d grow apart: You living in Mor Ardain, me in Gormott and there were all those things that needed to be taken care of… You have no idea how surprised I was when I got your first letter.” She lowered her gaze, looking at the water now.

Mòrag opened her eyes again and relaxed her posture. “I thought you might be. But I wanted to keep in touch.”

“And I’m glad you did.”, Nia told her and directed that gentle smile at her. “I thought it was really sweet that you remembered us.”, she admitted and her eyes looked back at the water again, a fond expression in them now. “Your letters are usually the highlight of my week.”

Mòrag noticed her expression and smiled gently. “I’m happy you think that way…”, she replied.

Nia raised her gaze again to meet Mòrag’s and all of a sudden, they both noticed how close they were sitting next to each other. Both blinked and blushed, not sure if it would seem weird if they suddenly moved away.

Nia decided to look at the night sky. “T-the stars are really beautiful tonight.”, she said in an attempt to distract from the sudden awkwardness.

“I-indeed.”, Mòrag agreed and did the same. She could feel their bodies almost touching. “Is that a shooting star?”

“Hm?” Nia cocked her head a little. There was indeed something moving through the sky. “Uh…” She narrowed her eyes. No, that thing wasn’t bright enough to be a shooting star, but what else could be moving with such speed against the sky? “Is it coming closer?!”, she noticed when the shape seemed to become larger.

“Wha-“

Next thing they knew, something had landed with mighty big force into the water, making it splash everywhere.

Nia and Mòrag just stared dumbfounded at the two bodies floating in the spring, as did the other visitors.  
“What the bloody…”, Nia began when she recognized the distinctive lightbulb-shaped tail attached to one of the bodies.

Suddenly, the two figures moved and stood up straight.  
“Wow! What a wild ride!”, Zeke shouted and then he let out a hearty laugh, hands on his hips. “We landed quite soft this time around!”

Pandoria coughed out some water she had accidentally inhaled during the landing. “Guess we’ve had worse…”

Zeke looked around and got confronted with three very angry looking teenage girls, as well as two older women staring at him threateningly. The Nopon ladies seemed surprisingly unaffected by all this. The prince of Tantal gave them a charming smile and raised a hand to greet them. “Yo.”

“Pervert!!”, one of the girls screamed and before Zeke knew it one of her friends had slapped him so hard that he slipped and fell backwards into the water again.

Pandoria just laughed. “Hey, I think I know that place…”, she said aloud, not caring about the commotion her driver had caused.

When Zeke dove out of the water again he found himself on eye level with Nia and Mòrag. He stared at the both of them, needing a moment to recognize them since he hadn’t expected seeing any familiar faces. His eye wandered down, the lowered water level revealing some very _intriguing_ assets he had previously neither seen nor noticed about his two female friends before.   
Only after a moment, Zeke’s eye wandered to Mòrag and continued to stare.

Nia noticed and felt offended. “Oi, what do you think you’re doing, you swine?!”, she screamed and raised a fist to punch him in the face. Before she knew it, Mòrag had beat her to the task and hit Zeke with an uppercut so hard that he flew to the other end of the pool, where he laid unconscious in the water, face turned upwards. The two Nopon ladies watched him curiously, while the other visitors decided to leave.

It was then when Pandoria finally turned to them. “Mòrag! Nia! What a surprise to see you here!”

The duo just stared flatly at her.

Pandoria didn’t seem to notice at all. In fact, she didn’t even seem to care for the fact that she and her driver had just dropped down from the freaking skies! Unscathed at that, as if it was nothing!

The electric elemental blade sat down nonchalantly between the two of them and stretched her arms lazily. “Phew, out of all the places to land in a hot spring is definitely the _best_!”

Nia just stared at her. “ _How?!_ ”

“Hm?” Pandoria had a confused smile on her face.

It was Mòrag who found her composure first. “What she meant to ask is: how did you two end up here?”, she inquired.

“Oh, _that_.” Pandoria leaned back, sinking into the water and with a snap of her fingers her clothes had dissipated into ether. “Oh, you know, my prince and I were travelling towards Mor Ardain for your birthday, then we got lost, encountered a mighty big monster…”, she shrugged. “The usual stuff.”

Mòrag raised an eyebrow. “Why did you travel by foot when I sent someone to make sure you’d get on one of the Ardainian ships if you desired to arrive earlier?”

Pandoria laughed. “Because my prince _hates_ all those royal duties his father put on him ever since we returned to Tantal.” Another shrug. “As soon as he read that invitation he was all like ‘bye old man, gotta attend some diplomatic matters’. He couldn’t possibly wait for whole _days_ to pass until the Ardainian ship left Tantal again.”

Mòrag cursed inwardly. After hearing from her informant that Zeke would not board the Ardainian ship she had expected him to arrive later, maybe only for the birthday celebration itself, but she had once again underestimated his dedication to evade his royal responsibilities.  
“So this means you will stay in Alba Cavanich until my birthday?”

“Of course!” Pandoria smirked and put her arms around Nia’s and Mòrag’s necks, pulling them close. “I haven’t seen you guys in almost a year, we will have lots of things to catch up on! My prince and I are gonna be all up in your lives~”

“Oh, that’s just… great…”, Mòrag mumbled, trying hard to keep the sour expression off her face.

Nia on the other hand still felt like punching Zeke for this turn of events.

 

* * *

 

 

And so the days passed in Mor Ardain.

Since Mòrag was off working during daytime it fell upon Nia to humour Pandoria and her driver – or rather, she became the victim of their antics. With Pandoria it wasn’t so bad most of the time, Nia just did not feel like going shopping every damn day, especially not since Pandoria insisted on taking breaks at cafés and having some ‘girl talk’. Nia couldn’t wait for Mythra to finally arrive and take _that_ bullet – Pandoria just wouldn’t stop pestering her with the same bloody questions: No, Nia did not have a boyfriend and no, there was _no one_ she had set her eyes on. Though, she might have blushed a little when she gave the latter answer and Pandoria might have noticed too – but her company was still less frustrating than Zeke’s.

“Oi, furry-ears!” As per usual, Zeke barged through her quarter’s door without knocking.

Nia glared at him. “What’s it? I’m currently in the middle of something here!”, she shouted and raised her violin to show him.

Zeke sighed theatrically. “Again? Don’t you want to spend some quality time with the Zekenator?”

She frowned. “Quality time?? We’ve been together for almost two weeks now and whenever we walk into town you get us into some sort of trouble! Remember yesterday? Where that old lady asked us to retrieve her purse because a ‘dog’ stole it? And it turned out to be a huge beast and not just some stray?”

Zeke laughed. “Turns out there was a bounty on that one’s head. We hit two birds with one stone!”

“You bloody…! There was a reason that bounty was so damn high! That thing almost ate me for lunch!”

“Oh, don’t exaggerate now, fuzzy-ears.”

“Exaggerate? What about the day before that?!”

“To my defence: collecting some flowers for that doctor did not sound like it could go wrong.”

“Well, he conveniently forgot to mention that they only grow on high cliffs that require lotsa very unsafe climbing to get there!” Her fear of heights had almost _killed_ her that day. She had returned a nervous wreck, but at least Mòrag seemed to have been amused by that story when Nia had told it to her later that evening. She had given Nia her full sympathy and while meant as a teasing, she had patted her head, so maybe it hadn’t been all that bad…

“Oh, don’t be such a spoilsport.” Zeke just shrugged at the points she brought up. “We had a great view from up there.”

“Maybe you enjoyed it, because you’re bloody indestructible…!”, she muttered under her breath. With a huff, she rested her chin on her violin and began playing a few tunes. “Do what you want: I’m gonna stay here today. The celebration is tomorrow evening and I don’t feel like getting into trouble before that. Next thing we know, we get thrown into jail because you stepped on the emperor’s favourite snail or some ardunshit…”

Dromarch, who had been just lying around in the background for the duration of the conversation, chuckled when he heard that.

Zeke sighed and just plopped onto the floor. “You’re a real wet blanket, fluffy-ears.” But he stopped trying to convince her and listened to her play instead. Nia was able to perform the piece she had practiced all the time since his arrival without the music sheets now. She still had them before her, just in case she made a mistake, but it wasn’t necessary.

Zeke didn’t recognize the melody, but it was a nice mix of something light hearted that transitioned into a slow mellow tune during the end. He closed his eye and leaned a bit back, enjoying the music as well as the midday sun shining through the windows.  
“That end sounds very romantic.”, he commented when she finished.

“Y-you think…?” Nia lowered her gaze and pretended to fix up the music sheets.

“Did you come up with this yourself?”, he asked curiously.

Her ears drooped. “I’m not a composer, so… no. This piece is a mixture of a few Gormotti tunes, Alis helped me come up with the transitions.”, she explained.

“Alis?”; Zeke wondered.

“That redhead in Gormott with the violin.”, Nia elaborated.

A light bulb lit up above Zeke’s head. “Ah, the one who made music while you danced with Mòrag in the streets!”

Of course he’d remember that. Nia nodded and her lips curved into a smile when she remembered that day. “She seemed to enjoy the music a lot and I didn’t have a better idea for a birthday present…”

Zeke crossed his arms and nodded. “It’s a very thoughtful gift, I’m sure she will love it.”

“Really?” Nia’s ears perked up, happy for that opinion. She had felt bad for not coming up with an original tune, but composing a melody was not easy, especially not with the limited time she had had at her disposal. The tunes she had picked were some of her personal favourites, a lot similar to those she and Alis had played the day, so Nia hoped that Mòrag would enjoy them too. As for the last part that Zeke had recognized as a romantic piece, well… it’s because it was. It was one of Gomott’s most famous love songs.

Alis had teased her when she had picked it for her project, asking who the lucky receiver would be and Nia had rejected any and all implications with a flushed face, but the truth was… part of her hoped Mòrag would know the tune. She had grown up in Gormott too, so the odds were definitely there.

“Not that it’s gonna be able to compete with the mighty Zekenator’s gift”, Zeke suddenly said with a triumphant grin, pointing his thumb towards himself, “but it’s gonna make a great second place.”

Nia narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, yeah? What did the _mighty Zekenator_ get Mòrag for her birthday?”, she inquired, a bit offended now.

“Something that will appeal to her sense of nostalgia and remind her of our journey together!”

Nia frowned. She hated to admit that, but that didn’t sound like too bad of an idea… “And what would that be?”, she tried sound dismissive, though deep inside she actually felt a bit nervous.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, ey?”, he replied with a smirk. “That’s gonna stay a secret until tomorrow!”

Nia pouted, but then she just dismissed his words by returning her attention towards her violin and played the piece again. “Whatever. It’s not like this is a competition or anything.”

“Of course not, furry-ears.” Zeke smiled smugly.

Nia felt the need to throw her violin’s bow at him.

 

* * *

Finally, the day of the celebration had arrived.

Nia had been too nervous to stay in her room, so she had wandered around the palace and watched the busy goings-on and noticed just how big Hardhaigh Palace really was. She had seen the people set the tables in the ballroom and decorate it, had snuck into the kitchen because the delicious smell of food had led her there (she had tried to steal a nibble, but the kitchen staff was as well-trained and attentive as any other soldier and it ended up with her hand being hit with a wooden spoon by an especially grumpy looking old lady). When she had seen enough she decided to go to Port Anangham and watch the people go by. It was busier here today than on the day of her arrival. Leaning her hands against the railing of the elevated platform she stared holes into the air as she fell in deep thought.

Nia was undecided on when exactly she should ‘give’ Mòrag her present. Surely, the birthday girl would receive them during the celebrations as the guests came in and greeted her, but Nia didn’t want to perform in front of a crowd. No, this piece was only for Mòrag. If she could somehow convince her to go somewhere where they were alone…

Nia blushed – even the suggestion alone sounded ambiguous. There had to be some _other_ way.

“Nia!”, a voice called out and before she knew it, someone had lifted her off the ground and gave her a bear hug. She distinctly felt a big pair of breasts pressed against her back.

Nia felt how the last bit of air left her lungs. Before she could fall unconscious the culprit sat her down again. The Gormotti driver turned around and her face lit up when she saw a certain blonde blade.  
“Mythra!”, she exclaimed with a happy smile. “Haven’t seen you in ages!” She returned the hug Mythra had given her and when she let go again, Rex and Pyra had caught up with the light type Aegis.

“Nia!”, the duo greeted her in unison.

“Rex! Pyra!” There was a huge grin on her face now. “How are you guys?” She gave them both a hug, first Pyra, then Rex. When she let go of the boy, she noticed something and held him at arm’s length while she narrowed her eyes.

“I-is something the matter?”, Rex asked, a bit puzzled.

Nia measured her height against his with her hand. “Hehe, seems like you’ve finally hit your growth spurt.”, she commented with a sly grin. He had certainly grown a few inches taller.

The commented left him embarrassed. “Of course, what did you expect?”

“That you’d stay a shorty.”

“Hey!”

Pyra chuckled at the exchange. “How have you been, Nia?”, she asked curiously.

“Is Tora still alive?”, Mythra inquired with a smug grin while she crossed her arms. “Living under the same roof with him can’t be easy.”

Nia answered with a laugh. “Honestly? Not as bad I imagined it in the beginning. Though, our living together did claim some victims…”, she said and tugged at her pink and white striped suit.

Mythra just laughed. “Hey, it suits you at least.”

Nia smiled and looked at the trio. It was so good to see them again. They had not changed at all and interacting with them felt as if they had parted just yesterday. For some reason, Nia felt a huge relief when she realized that. As with Mòrag, part of her had feared she would grow apart with her friends if she didn’t see them, but luckily this was not the case.

“Come on, guys! I can show you to your quarters at the palace.”, Nia suggested.

Pyra chuckled softly at the Gormotti’s enthusiasm. “Seems like you’ve already settled in here.”

“I’ve been here for two weeks, what did you expect?” Nia smiled smugly.

“Where is Tora by the way?”, Rex inquired.

The Gormotti just shrugged. “He’s probably gonna be fashionably late…”

The four made their way towards Alba Cavanich and exchanged stories about how they had spent the last year. As the leader of Garfont’s mercenaries Rex had been quite busy and had often travelled to Uraya to make sure things were running smoothly.

Nia on the other hand told them about the developments in Gormott and how Tora and his dadapon were working on ever new upgrades for their blades and useful everyday stuff too. And sometimes not so useful stuff… She told them the story about something Tora called a “two-wheeled steed”, apparently he had designed it for faster mobility, but for some reason he built it with such measurements that a Nopon wasn’t even able to use it, so it had fallen on Nia to test it out.

Mythra laughed when Nia told them about how she hadn’t been able to find her balance on the thing in the beginning and how she had hissed and scratched at it as if it were a living being when it got her increasingly frustrated. Rex and Pyra on the other hand seemed interested in that invention.

Pandoria and Zeke found them in the shopping district before they arrived at the palace.  
The electric elemental blade had immediately thrown herself at Pyra and Mythra and they had indulged into girl talk before Zeke had the chance to greet the Aegises. Nia laughed at him being obviously ignored and Rex only smiled apologetically and then asked Zeke about his whereabouts during the last year.

With the old group almost complete the day passed quickly. Stories were exchanged, lunch was had in a restaurant and only when it was three hours to go until the celebration everyone decided it would be best to head to the palace and prepare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering what that romantic piece was that Nia was playing: It's an Irish song called "Siúil a Rún", whose title can be translated as "Go, my Love". I listened to the version of KOKIA (a Japanese singer with a GREAT voice) on youtube. Imagine a violin version and you have what Nia is playing~


	3. Celebration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The evening of the celebration~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a LOT of fun writing this XD

Mòrag hated formal celebrations. They were tedious and the people attending dishonest and too caught up in exchanging superficial pleasantries. She usually tended to see these things as recon missions: mingle with the crowd, catch interesting information on Mor Ardain’s upper class which might be useful for later negotiations, get a better picture on interpersonal relationships – it was her way of getting through the evening. Normally, she could do all this without drawing much attention to herself by just listening in to different conversations.

“I wish you a happy birthday, my lady.”

She took the hand offered to her and shook it, thanked the man for his present and he in turn placed it on a table behind her, together with all the other gifts she had already received.

Today’s celebration was an exception for the worse in many ways. First off, all the attention was on her since it was her birthday.

Second, this was not a military or political celebration (officially at least) which meant that she couldn’t just wear her dress uniform. No, off-duty formal wear it was: a shirt with a tie, a blazer… Brighid had even convinced her to let her hair down.

Third, she was basically forced to attend since this was supposed to be “her” party.

“Hey, Mórag.”

Her sulky thoughts stopped when a certain group of drivers and blades stood in front of her. It was Rex and his friends, all of them dressed up appropriately. The boy was wearing a suit, nice and proper, with a neatly knotted tie too. Zeke’s wear was not too different from what he usually wore, except that he had decided to put a shirt on and a more formal looking coat. The blades on the other hand hadn’t changed their appearance much, but she did notice that Nia wore a shawl around her shoulders, conveniently covering her core crystal. Tora wasn’t there with them, but from what Mòrag had gathered he had been caught up working on something and would most likely be late.

Rex smiled brightly at her. “Happy birthday.” Pyra and Mythra were by his sides.

Mòrag found herself smiling back. “You have grown.”, she commented.

“Seems like it, Nia said so too…” His raised his hand towards the back of his head, but he suppressed the movement and put his hand down again.

“Happy birthday, Mòrag.” Pyra then said and Mythra too.

For some reason, their words sounded much more genuine than the birthday wishes she had received so far. “I’m happy you could come.”, she said.

“Of course! You are our friend after all.” He grinned and pulled an envelope out of his pocket. “We got you a little something… I hope you like it.”

Mòrag took the envelope and opened it carefully, genuinely curious as to what the trio had come up with. It was two tickets for the theatre in Fonsa Myma. A bit surprised, Mòrag eyed the tickets closely. “There is no date on them…”, she noticed.

Rex nodded. “We couldn’t possibly know when you’d have free time to attend a play, so we talked to Cole and he said it was no problem. You can chose whatever date and play you want, they are valid indefinitely.”

“And we got you two, because we thought you might wanna take Niall along.”, Pyra added. “Since you seemed a bit concerned about your relationship with him back when we were at the Cliffs of Morytha…”

Mòrag looked at her and Rex and smiled. “Thank you. I will make sure to find some time off to make use of this.” Not wanting to lose that present, she put the envelope in one of her blazer’s pockets.

“You can also take a date with you if you want.”, Mythra added with a smug grin. “Doesn’t have to be Niall.”

Mòrag stopped mid-motion for only a moment, before she pretended to have been unfazed by this comment. “I will keep that in mind… Mythra.”, she replied with a frown and pink cheeks.

“Heh, that’s a very mature gift you guys came up with.”, Nia commented.

Rx blushed. “What’s that supposed to mean? Do you think of me as childish?”

Nia gave him a cheeky grin. “Big time.”

“Hey!”

Mòrag chuckled at their banter. Under normal circumstances none of the guests would fall out of their polite persona, let alone start bickering with each other – but these were her friends, friends who had grown up far from any political affairs and who didn’t care about these type of things. Mòrag was glad for that attitude. It brought life to the stiff and pretentious atmosphere these kind of festivities usually brought with them.

“Step aside, kids.” Zeke suddenly said and separated the two with his hands. He stepped up to Mòrag and handed her a wrapped package. “The Zekenator’s gift will let yours pale in comparison.”

“Oh, really?”, Rex, Nia and Mòrag said at the same time.

Mòrag held the package in her hand and from its weight and feel she guessed it was a book.

“You will love it, Mòrag. After all, this book wouldn’t have existed without the efforts we made during our journey.”, Zeke explained dramatically while she unwrapped it. Nia and Rex popped up behind him again, very curious to see what his present was.

When Mòrag pulled the wrapping paper off she saw the title.

It was a copy of “Gentlemen: A Study”. Her eye twitched. This book… this book would indeed have not existed without their “efforts” – and maybe it would not have existed at all, if the author had not started a tedious questline for ‘inspiration’ by mistaking Mòrag for a dashing young gentleman and sending her and the others twice all the way down to the lower plains of Tantal to find useless rings and fight monsters, just so they could describe the happenings to her.

Mòrag had been in a sour mood throughout the whole ordeal and had ended up blowing her report a bit out of proportion, hoping the ridiculousness she had added would discourage the woman. No, instead it had inspired her even more.

“Blew you away, ey?”, Zeke commented Mòrag’s silence.

“I… have no words for this.”, she replied. No nice words at least. Mòrag was tempted to burn that thing in her very hands, but Brighid wasn’t nearby…

Nia supressed a snort. “That’s what I was worried about?”

Rex seemed at a loss for words altogether.

It was then when Pandoria popped up by Zeke’s side and pushed him away. “Yeah, yeah, very nice my prince…Please check mine out now!” She said and pressed her present into Mòrag’s hands.

A bit bewildered by the sudden change of topic, the Ardainian woman just did as she was told and opened Pandoria’s present. It was a giftbox containing various wellness items: skincare lotion, hair conditioner, shampoo…

“Do you like it?”, Pandoria asked.

Mòrag nodded. “Very much. Thank you, Pandoria.” She gave the blade a sincere smile.

“I also have something for you, Lady Mòrag.”, Dromarch announced and stepped forward.

Mòrag watched him curiously, waiting for him to make his next move because she couldn’t see him carrying anything. Dromarch then looked to his driver, who suddenly seemed to remember something. “Oh, right!”, Nia exclaimed and stepped forward, a letter in her hand. “Not like he can carry it without drooling all over it…” She reached it to Mòrag and the Ardainian first put down the presents she was holding in her hands with the others before she accepted the envelope.

She opened it curiously, wondering what Dromarch may have come up with and was surprised to see a children’s drawing. She took it out of the envelope and noticed that it was a flyer for “Kiara and Friends’ End of the Year Concert”. The picture made her smile and she looked back to the white tiger for an explanation.

“Remember the girl that gave Ursula her Torigonda?”, Nia began.

Mòrag nodded.

“She worked really hard this past year and performed daily in front of a crowd, which inspired other children her age to take up instruments too.”, Dromarch continued. “They will perform their first proper concert to celebrate the end of the year.” There was a smile on his face now. “I thought it would make for a nice occasion to visit Torigoth again… and my lady and I while you are at it.”

Nia stared at her blade, seemingly flustered for some reason and Mòrag looked at the invitation again, which showcased five Gormotti children singing and playing music (indicated by music notes coming out of their mouths) and a sun with a smiley face in the corner. It was adorable and drawn with so much heart.

“I will make sure to attend.”, she promised.

“And don’t forget Brighid.”, Nia said and smiled slyly at her blade. Dromarch blinked, actually looking embarrassed for a second, before he found his composure again.

Mòrag didn’t notice, since she had her eyes still on the card. “Of course.”, she just said and put it away with a smile.

“Speaking of which, where _is_ Brighid anyway?”, Pandoria suddenly wondered.

Before Mòrag could answer to that someone barged in through the entrance doors with a loud “meh-meh-meh!”. The group of friends and all of the attendees looked towards where the voice came from. It came from a Nopon, who was accompanied by a human-looking robotic girl.

Nia let out a big sigh. “Leave it to Tora to make the most inappropriate entrance…”

Mòrag heard the whispers and mumbles around them, most being indignant about a _Nopon_ suddenly barging in and commenting on his lack of manners, but everyone grew silent when they noticed Brighid walking closely behind the duo.

Tora spotted his friends immediately and walked up to them without caring about the offended looks the Ardainian royalty gave him. Poppi followed him closely with a big present in hands. Brighid had an amused smile on her face.

“You’re late!”, Nia scolded him.

“Meh?? Tora was on time! But guards didn’t believe Tora was invited! Thought stole invitation!”

“You didn’t even dress up properly! Of course they’d think you’re a hobo!”, Nia replied with a frown, while she placed her hands on her hips.

“Nia kidding?!” Tora was indignant now. “This Tora’s formal overall! Is black and hasn’t any stains on it!”, he explained.

Rex and Pyra exchanged a stunned gaze, Pandoria shook her head at the Nopon, Mythra laughed at the squabblers and Zeke sighed theatrically.

Mòrag on the other hand watched the exchange with increasing amusement until at some point she couldn’t keep her composure and just snorted.

Nia and Tora stopped quarrelling when they heard that and looked towards Mòrag, who was very unsuccessfully trying to hide her laughter.

“I’m very happy you made it, Tora, Poppi.”, she said and looked at the duo.

Tora smiled brightly. “Tora wishes friend bestest of birthdays!”, he said while he excitedly moved his wings. “Poppi and Tora also have great present!” He gave Poppi a look and the artificial blade stepped forward and put the box down, which was about as big as Poppi herself.

“Wow, that’s what you’ve been working on since you got the invitation?” Nia was impressed by the sheer size of that thing alone.

Tora nodded. “Please open!”, he asked of Mòrag.

“Hehe…” The Ardainian woman herself had to admit that she was quite curious to see as to what Tora and Poppi had come up with, so she did as she was told and unwrapped and opened the box.

It was a grandfather clock. Mòrag raised her eyebrows. Well, that was certainly unexpected. She eyed it closely. The case was made with finest Gormotti wood and smoothly sanded, with a glass window inserted in the middle so that the pendulum was clearly visible. The clock-face was a ring, with the numbers hand-painted in filigree handwriting (which could have only been Poppi’s doing), while the middle was uncovered and revealed some of the gears of the clock’s fascinating interior life.

“This is… beautiful. Did you built it from scratch?”, Mòrag was impressed.

Tora nodded. “Poppi was big help, smoothed wood and made decorative carvings on case aaaand…” Tora was behind the clock now and set it so that both hands were on the twelve. Suddenly, a small carved door above the face opened and a miniature Poppi and Tora statue appeared from inside.  
“It mealtime!”, the figures announced with a mechanical voice.

Mòrag laughed, now _that_ seemed just like them.

“Mòrag sound always very busy in letters.”; Tora explained. “So Poppi and Tora made clock that remind Mòrag to eat!”

“Aww.”, Pandoria just made.

“You made this fancy clock _just_ for that purpose?”, Zeke asked, eye wide, but then he laughed. “That’s Tora for you!”

There was a sceptical frown on Nia’s face. “Hey, Tora, how many times a day does that thing ring?”, she asked.

“Rings at every important mealtime hour!”

“But _every_ hour is important mealtime hour to you!” Nia was horrified.

“What wrong with that?” Tora didn’t seem to find an issue. He set the clock towards the current time and smiled proudly.

Brighid chuckled into her hand. “Knowing Lady Mòrag, she will probably not hear half of it once she is busy.”

Mòrag on the other hand was too touched to say anything. These were the most thoughtful gifts she had ever received, aside from Brighid’s and Niall’s gifts. She smiled widely at her friends. “I… I truly don’t know how to thank you…”

“Don’t sweat it, Mòrag!”, Zeke said and patted her back.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Except you.”, she said and removed his hand from her back.

“What? Come on!”  
  
Rex and the others just laughed at that.

Mòrag took a deep breath after that and gave them all a grateful look. She then looked around and was reminded of the fact that she had still a political persona to maintain. “I’m truly sorry, but I fear I will have to humour some of my other guests for a while.”, she said apologetically.

Rex nodded. “Don’t worry about it. We can talk later.”

She gave him a nod.

“Um…”, Nia suddenly said.

Everyone’s eyes were on her now. Nia’s ears flattened and she blushed. Suddenly she shook her head. “Never mind! It’s nothing!”, she shouted and walked away towards the buffet.

 

* * *

 

 

A few hours passed. Nia sat indignantly at one of the tables and was eating her fifth plate filled with food from the buffet: crab sticks, moonfish, salad, sausages, several types of appetizers – she had eaten her way through almost everything.

Incidentally, Mòrag was also dancing with the fifth guy in a row now. Not that Nia had counted. She didn’t care what Mòrag did – it was her birthday and she was free to spend it however she liked.

Nia saw the Ardainian chuckle at something her dance partner had said, and her grip around her fork tightened. Mòrag sure did seem to enjoy this gentleman’s company…!

“N-Nia?”, Rex asked carefully.

She averted her gaze from the scene and towards the boy sitting next to her, causing him to flinch under her glare. “What?”, she answered sharply.

“I-is there something on your mind? You seem… kinda angry?”, the boy almost didn’t dare speak up.

“I’m _completely_ fine!”, the Gormotti blade answered and took a bite from her crab roll. For some reason, that action looked more violent than necessary. “Just been wondering who that fancy schmuck is that Mòrag is talking to.”

“Ohhh~” Pandoria made, hiding a smirk behind her flat hand. “Someone’s jealous~”

“I am _not_ jealous.”, Nia insisted.

“Looks to me like you are binge eating out of frustration.”, Mythra commented.

“I also am _not_ frustrated. T-the food is just really good.” She turned to Tora, who was sitting on her other side. “Right?”

The Nopon had amassed his favourite tasty sausages on one plate and was eating them with relish. He only nodded in response since his mouth was full.

Zeke frowned. “Fuzzy-ears, even _I_ can tell that the girls are right.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing.” Nia frowned and continued eating.

Zeke exchanged a look with the two blades sitting next to him. Suddenly, he seemed to have an idea: “Oh, I know! You’re disappointed because you didn’t have the opportunity to show Mòrag your present!”

Nia halted, and for a second she fought down the urge to poke his eye out with her fork. “No, that’s not it. I wanted to do that in private anyway…” That is the reason why she had left her violin in her room.

“Ohhhh, in private~”, Pandoria made again. Nia huffed and put her fork down before she seriously hurt someone. Not that she couldn’t heal whatever damage she’d do in a second, but…  
She looked towards Mòrag again, who was still dancing the waltz with whoever that guy was. How long would the band continue playing the same damn song anyway?

“Who _is_ he?” Was he really that important that Mòrag forced herself to be all smiles around him?

Zeke looked back and forth between Nia and Mòrag, Suddenly, he stood up and grinned. “Only one way to find out, furry-ears!”

“W-what?”, Nia was a bit taken aback by his sudden enthusiasm.

The prince of Tantal just grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her off the table.

Mythra, Pandoria and Rex just stared after them. Tora was still eating his sausages without a care in the world.

Before they reached the dancefloor, Nia managed to free her arm out of his grasp. “Ey, what’s the big idea?!”, she asked indignantly.

“You know how to dance waltz?”, Zeke just asked.

Nia was utterly confused. “Y-yeah?”

“Good, then let’s mingle with the crowd!” Zeke clasped her right hand with his left and Nia’s ears perked up.

“What are you doing?!”, she exclaimed when he placed his other hand at the base of her shoulder blade. What if Mòrag saw them together and got the wrong idea??

“You wanna know if Mòrag is interested in that guy, right? Then we need to check the situation up close.” He gave her a grin and pulled her close.

“That’s not…!” Nia blushed furiously. “W-we can’t do that…!”, she tried to protest.

“And one-two-three.”, Zeke began to count and actually started moving in sync to the music’s beat.

Out of habit, Nia moved along to his steps so that he wouldn’t step on her feet. She looked around, to find Mòrag and her partner again, and was surprised to see Poppi dancing with the emperor himself. “Wow, how the hell did she manage to do that?”, Nia wondered aloud.

The two of them moved along the dance floor quite nicely, as if they had been dance partners for a long, long while. Whether this was because of their similar size or because they both knew the dance well enough, Nia couldn’t say. Poppi certainly seemed to enjoy herself and Niall was also smiling widely.

“Eyes up here furry-ears.”, Zeke said and she turned to him with a frown. “Adjust your posture, will you?”

She glared at him and straightened her back, while she clawed her free hand into his biceps. “That better, shellhead?”

“Just splendid…” His smile seemed a bit forced now. “And now, dip.” Zeke slowly pushed her towards the ground.

“W-wait!” Not having expected this, Nia just went along with the flow. She did not fall onto the ground, because Zeke was keeping a steady hold onto her body. “I hate you.”, she said and in the next moment he pulled her up again and continued.

“One-two-three, furry-ears.”, Zeke said and Nia just pouted.

“I _know_ how to dance.”, she stated angrily.

“Then behave like it.”, he replied nonchalantly. “One-two-three.”

Nia huffed, but put a little bit more attention to her steps. They danced along the floor, like many other pairs and from the corner of her eyes, Nia spotted Pyra and Rex joining the dance floor. Somewhere else, Brighid and Dromarch were talking and eating by a lone table, just the two of them.

There she was. Two pairs away, Nia saw Mòrag and the other guy again. They were still talking, Mòrag looked a bit more serious now than before. Unconsciously, she tugged Zeke towards them.

This time at least, he complied with her wishes and tried to lead her towards the duo.

And then the song ended and the dancing stopped.

Mòrag let go of her partner and gave him a slight nod and a smile and left the dance floor.  
Nia looked after her and was ready to follow, but then the band started playing the next piece and for some reason, Zeke started dancing again.

“Hey, what are you doing?”, Nia asked with a frown.

Zeke shrugged. “Haven’t danced like this in years. It is more fun then I remember it.”

She gave him an indignant look. “Then dance with Pandoria for Architect’s sake, I got better things to do!” And with this, she let go of him and tried to make her way through the people.

“Oh, ffff- you can’t be serious!”, she exclaimed when she saw Mòrag talking with yet another man. At least they didn’t dance. And he seemed to be much older too. Nia approached them until she was within ear-shot. Thanks to all the background noise, including music and the talks of hundred people at once, she wasn’t able to catch everything. She picked out a few keywords “empire”, “senate”, some military lingo and a few names.

At first Nia, had wanted to wait until they were finished but half an hour passed and the two of them _still_ talked. When a second geezer joined them Nia gave up on her plan. It did not seem like she would be able to spend time with Mórag tonight.

She sighed disappointedly. 

~

Mòrag was tired of smiling constantly. Ardainian aristocrats, senators, military officials… everyone had been dying to use the opportunity to talk with her.

She had tried to entertain them all: be polite, listen to their opinion about the current political climate and the next steps Mor Ardain should take in order to establish more power and a better foothold in Elysium. Narrow-minded opinions from narrow-minded people. She tried her best to stay calm and not insult her conversational partners by calling them idiots for basically proposing to arm the country and provoke the other nations. Most of them wanted power and money and war was the easiest way to go about that.

The Grand Marshal’s son had been the most frustrating to deal with. Same age as her, but far less battle tested and only in a high military position because of his father’s influence. The worst thing about him wasn’t his obnoxious charming smile or that he exploited his position to get a dance with her – obviously trying to win her favour. No, it had been the fact that he pretended to know what he was talking about when military matters were involved. That and…

“Lady Mòrag, I know you need to maintain your relationship with the driver of the Aegis, but was it really necessary to invite _all_ of his friends?”, Oscar asked with a sideways glance towards the table were Rex and his friends sat, particular Tora and Nia.

Inherent racism. Mòrag smiled wider to fight the incoming frown. “Yes, Tora and his artificial blade Poppi have helped us to escape many a dire situation…”, she went on to explain. She gave a sideways glance to the table, were Tora was stuffing his mouth with tasty sausages. Nia was scowling for some reason at Zeke.

“And… the Gormotti?” There was an obvious aversion on his face when he mentioned Nia. “I can’t imagine them being much useful except for woodwork and growing vegetables.”

Mòrag may have squeezed his hand a bit too tight in that moment, the smile on her face freezing in place. “Nia is the best healer I’ve ever had the honour of encountering. She has healed multiple lethal wounds of mine without leaving as much as a scratch behind.” Oh, how she wished she could show this bastard his place in a one on one battle in front of a nice big crowd so that enough people bore witness to his humiliation…

“Hm, interesting. I can see why you kept her around if that is the case.”

Maybe throwing him out of the nearest window would also suffice.

The current song dragged on and so she was forced to continue to dance with him. She couldn’t break off eye contact with him. It was impolite, but her real reason for not doing so was to not have him think she may have been flustered by him. The thought alone made her blood boil. Why did this kind of man always relate even the smallest of gestures to themselves?

If Nia had been in her stead… Mòrag supressed a chuckle at the thought.

Speaking of which, the Special Inquisitor took notice of some movement behind the Grand Marshal’s son: It was Zeke, seemingly dragging Nia onto the dance floor. Mòrag tried very hard to keep her gaze straight, but even from her peripheral vision she could see Nia’s agitation. Her cheeks were a deep red. Was she actually flustered at the thought of dancing with Zeke?  They had gotten in position, Zeke had pulled her awfully close…

She wanted to take a better look, but the dance dictated she averted her gaze from them as they moved along the floor.  
Damn it… how come Zeke, of all people, had managed to get Nia to the dance floor? Mòrag felt a pang of envy.

“Lady Mòrag, is everything alright?”

Mòrag tried to not scowl at him. “Yes, I’m fine.”, she gave him a grin and tried very hard not to focus on Zeke dancing behind her with a certain Gormotti blade… It was probably nothing. Keep calm, maybe Zeke had dragged her against her will on the dance floor – Mòrag could see that happen easily.

When the tune finally ended she excused herself as politely as she could and tried to escape from any other potential interested parties. Maybe if she talked to Niall for a while… or Brighid… People usually were too careful to approach her directly if she was with either of them. Her eyes searched for her brother and she found him talking to… Poppi? Mòrag raised her eyebrows.

“Oho, there you are Special Inquisitor!” A heavy hand was placed on her shoulder and Mòrag almost winced. She turned around, but she had already recognized the man from his voice already.

It was Grand Marshal Robalt himself. Mòrag put on her friendliest smile. She wondered how often she could do this before her jaw started to hurt.

He wanted to know how her dance with his son Oscar had gone – but he couldn’t ask this directly, of course. So he started with current military affairs. At least, he was reasonable to talk to about these things…

Time passed and when she _finally_ saw an end in sight for this already dragging on conversation, someone else decided to join the talk.

“Senator Watkins, _such_ a pleasure to see you.”, Mòrag greeted him through gritted teeth. She groaned inwardly because this encounter was sure to add at least another hour of conversation…

Another twenty minutes passed…  
But rescue was underway – though Mòrag had certainly not expected it to take the shape of Zeke.  
  
“Mòrag!”, his thundering voice called out and in the next moment she felt his hand on his shoulder.

She turned to him, a very confused frown on her face.

“There is an urgent emergency that needs your expertise in handling.”, Zeke announced. He was in a way too good mood to sell that lie – but Mòrag took the opportunity.

“Is that so? Then please, lead the way…” She turned to Robalt and Watkins and gave them an apologetic nod. “Until later.”

She didn’t have the time for more because Zeke immediately grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away.

Mòrag let out a big sigh of relief when they were out of earshot. He led her to the table where her friends sat. “So, what is this emergency you were talking about?”, she asked, curious to see if there even was an emergency at all.

“Mòrag finally there!”, Tora exclaimed. “Have tasty sausage!”

“No real emergency.”, Zeke said with a grin and let go of her.

She gave him a stern look, but smiled soon thereafter. “Thank you.” She looked at the table and noticed the absence of a certain Gormotti blade. “Where is Nia?”

Mythra and Pandoria exchanged a suggestive glance.  
“She left early.”, Mythra answered. “She seemed kinda upset.”

“Upset?”, Mòrag asked, a very concerned look on her face now.

“Are you sure, Mythra?”, Pandoria replied to the blonde blade’s words as she placed a hand on her chin. “She looked more jealous to me…”, she added with a sly smile.  
Mythra elbowed her in response with a "Shhh!", but Pandoria just grinned smugly.

Mòrag paled. Upset? _Jealous_?

“No, no! Pandoria got it all wrong!”, Tora intervened then. “Nia left because of tummy ache!”

Mòrag was utterly confused now. “I… I think it may be wise to look after her…”

“Please do!” Mythra and Pandoria said and smiled simultaneously.

 

* * *

 

The moon stood full in the dark night sky. Nia was sitting outside on the palace’s roof, where she had once shared a heart to heart with Mòrag about her feelings on Mor Ardain invading Gormott. She felt drawn to this place, because it had been the beginning of her getting finally along with the Special Inquisitor.

Not even a year had passed and here she was, sulking, because she didn’t get to spend the evening with Mòrag and because she had been too jealous watching Mòrag talk to her royal acquaintances.

When in the world had she started to feel so strongly about the Ardainian?

With a sigh, Nia placed her chin on the violin and began playing a tune. She had retrieved it from her room because playing music helped her to calm down and keep her mind focused on something different than her gloomy thoughts.

She didn’t know for how long she played. But making music underneath the full moon… it provided her with a special kind if inner peace.

“Nia?”, a voice whispered out.

Nia halted when she heard her own name. She turned around and saw Mòrag standing behind her. Immediately, the Gormotti shot up and hid the violin and bow behind her hands. “Oh, hey, Mòrag! What are you doing out here?”, she asked with a nervous smile.

“I…” Mòrag watched the Gormotti standing on the ledge and grew very concerned for a second. “I was looking for you… the others told me you left early and I got worried.”, she answered.

“Worried?” Nia rose an eyebrow. “About what?”

Mòrag averted her gaze from the blade and stared meekly to the ground. “About you…?”

Nia blinked. “Oh…” She didn’t know how to reply to that, but her cheeks started to feel warm all of a sudden.

“Why did you leave?”, Mòrag inquired.

Nia didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth. “Just wanted to get some fresh air, don’t worry about it.”, she replied and jumped down from the ledge in front of Mòrag.

She could see the doubt in Mòrag’s light brown eyes. Nia’s ears drooped a bit. The Ardainian was truly concerned for her, wasn’t she?  
Now, she couldn’t confess that she was sulking just because Mòrag had not spend the evening with them, right? No, no. That was terribly immature. And not entirely the truth either. She decided to distract from the topic at hand.

“Hey, I didn’t give you your present yet!”

Mòrag seemed puzzled at the sudden mood swing. “I… assumed that the invitation to the concert in Torigoth was from Dromarch _and_ you.”, she confessed slowly.

Nia shook her head. “Nah, it was from Dromarch alone. I had… something else in mind.”

Mòrag looked with open interest towards Nia now. The Flesh Eater gave her a big smile. “Sit down!”, she asked of her and pointed with the violin bow towards the ledge.

Mòrag nodded and did as she was told.

Nia grinned from ear to ear when she realized that this was the opportunity she had hoped for earlier the day. It was just the two of them, alone… Finally, it was what she had wanted since she had arrived in Mor Ardain two weeks ago, but no, Zeke and Pandoria just _had_ to drop down from the bloody sky.

Nia made a little curtsy. “I hope you will enjoy yourself, your _highness_ …”, she announced with a sly expression. When she saw the sour expression on Mòrag’s face her grin grew a bit wider.

“That title is antiquated and means nothing.”, Mòrag said and crossed her arms with a huff. “The senate just put it on the invitation to jest me.”

Nia snorted. “As you say, my princess.” She grinned again when she saw the indignation on Mòrag’s face, but instead of waiting for a reply she started playing her violin. Mòrag closed her mouth immediately and began to listen.

So Nia played for her, beneath the moon and the stars. At first, she was a bit nervous because the piece started off with a very quick tune, but her fingers worked quickly and pressed the right strings as if she had never played anything else before. She relaxed after she played the first transition, because the tune was easier to play now.

That was when she dared to look at Mòrag again.

The Ardainian was watching her, utterly mesmerized by her movements and the music.

Nia blushed when their eyes met and she averted her gaze to rather focus on the violin. After ten minutes, she had reached the final transition and now played the complete version of “Go, my Love”. She stopped moving along to her own play. Just as the music mellowed so did her performance until she stood perfectly still and only moved her fingers and arm. She was too nervous to look at Mòrag again, so she closed her eyes and continued playing until the last note faded into the night sky.

She waited for a few moments before she opened her eyes again.

Mòrag just stared at her, completely stunned. “Nia, that was… wonderful.”, she managed to say.

Nia smiled bashfully. “Glad you liked it.”

“Of course I did, you are very talented.”

There was a moment of silence in which Mòrag eyed the Flesh Eater thoughtfully. “That last tune…”, she began, “wasn’t it, ‘Go, my Love’?”

Nia blinked, suddenly abashed. “Y-yeah… You know it?”

Mòrag nodded. “It’s a song about a woman whose lover left to pursue a military career… It was quite popular around the time I lived in Gormott.”

Nia nodded. “Still is.”

“Is there…”, there was a blush creeping up on Mòrag’s cheeks, “a reason why you decided to include this piece in your performance?”

Nia felt her cheeks redden. She turned her head sideways while she answered. “N-no, i-it just had the perfect pace for the end I had in mind.”, she stuttered.

“I-I see…”  
  
It was apparent that none of them bought this obvious lie. Mòrag nervously fiddled with her tie to loosen it a bit. Why was it suddenly so hot? “D-Did you enjoy the celebration tonight?”, she asked to distract from her awkwardness.

“I-it was nice… very good food.” Nia gulped. “But…” Her ears twitched nervously. “I was hoping you’d spend a bit more time with me – us! I mean, us. More time with us.”

“Apologies.” Mòrag stood up and walked towards Nia. “These events always include some kind of politics, so it was an obligation to focus on certain guests.”

Nia dared giving her a sideways glance. “I-it’s okay, don’t sweat it. You’re a desirable woman after all…” She felt her blush deepen.

Mòrag sighed. “Indeed, it comes with being the Emperor’s only blood relative…” When she noticed Nia’s bashful behaviour she began realizing that Nia may not have referred to her worth as political influence. The Ardainian blushed.

They stood there and just stared at each other. Nia felt her heart race.

Mòrag watched the blade standing in front of her. The beautiful blade with eyes shining golden in the moonlight. She reached a hand out and placed it softly around the hand that held the violin bow. “Nia?”, she asked.

The Gormotti squeaked inwardly. “Yes?”

“Would you like to dance with me?”

Nia blinked twice, needing a moment to process the request. “Here? Without any music?”

Mòrag nodded, a soft smile on her face now. “Yes.”, she confirmed. “Just… the two of us.”

Just the two of them…?  
Nia felt how her legs turned to jelly. “Sure…”

She made a slow step back, freeing her hand from Mòrag’s and placed her violin and bow carefully down on the ledge. With stiff steps she assumed her position from before. Again, Mòrag took Nia’s right hand in hers. Then she placed her hand beneath the Gormotti’s shoulder blade, causing Nia to flinch timidly. So Mòrag wanted to take the lead… Nia smiled a bit and placed her free hand on Mòrag’s upper arm.

“Ready?”, Mòrag asked and Nia just nodded in response.

Mòrag pulled her a little closer and then she made the first steps. She went slowly first, to give Nia a chance to adapt to her new dance partner, but it wasn’t necessary. Nia was able to keep up without stepping on her toes.

“You’re good.”, the Ardainian commented, a bit surprised.

“Heh…” Nia chuckled. “What did you expect? I grew up as the daughter of a Lord, of course I know how to dance.”

“True.” Mòrag’s lips curved into an amused smile and Nia grew a bit embarrassed.

“I-I’m not just a rowdy thug, y’know.”

“Indeed, I do.”

Nia lowered her gaze bashfully and they continued dancing in silence. Without music they didn’t really stick to the waltz box pattern and just moved in a way that felt right, whether they went slow or fast, with wide steps or small… it did not matter. Nia was too preoccupied with the fact that she was really close to Mòrag to actually pay attention to what they were doing.

Mòrag’s hands on her body felt comfortably warm and Nia couldn’t help staying as close to the Ardainian as possible. At some point their steps became smaller until they stopped completely and Nia felt the need to rest her head on Mòrag’s body. Due to her short size though that would mean that she’d put her head on the other woman’s chest… She blushed at the thought and wondered if that would be okay, but then Mòrag pulled her into a tight embrace.

She certainly didn’t seem to mind, Nia realized and just went ahead and rested her head on the other woman’s chest. Then she placed one arm around Mòrag’s body in response to the hug, while her other hand still held tightly onto Mòrag’s.

The blade closed her eyes and listened to Mòrag’s heartbeat, wishing the night would never end. “This is… nice…”, she whispered.

“I hope that makes up for not being able to spend more time with you…”, Mòrag replied softly into her ear.

“Don’t worry about it, I know you’re really important and all… You did what you had to.”

Mòrag chuckled nervously. “I… wasn’t referring to tonight.”

Nia paused for a moment as she let those words sink in. Did Mòrag’s heart start to beat faster? Eventually she raised her head again to look Mòrag in the eyes. “What…?”

Mòrag averted her gaze shyly.

“Mòrag?” Nia stood up on her toes to meet the other woman on eye-level. “You wanna tell me something?”

Mòrag gulped and looked back to Nia, whose face was now awfully close to her own and looked away again. “I…”, she began and then she paused. “No, it’s nothing.”

“ _Mòrag_ …” Nia gave her a stern look. That sure didn’t look like nothing to her. She placed her hand on Mòrag’s cheek to force the Inquisitor to look directly into her eyes. This backfired a bit though, because now it was Nia who got aware of how close they were standing. She got caught up looking Mòrag in the eyes, those soft brown eyes that watched her with a fondness she had never seen before. Nia gulped and went back to stand properly on her feet again, only to find herself staring at Mòrag’s lips now, which were just a few inches apart from her own. Should she just…? Mòrag certainly did not seem to mind their current position.

She took a deep breath. _Come on, Nia._ _You can do this_ , she told herself. She closed her eyes and shot up for a one quick kiss – unfortunately though, Mòrag had just decided in the very same moment to lean down to kiss the smaller woman too, resulting in them bumping their foreheads together instead.

“Ow…!” Out of reflex Nia pressed her hands on her hurting forehead. “What the…?” When she opened her eyes again she found Mòrag doing the same.

They exchanged a gaze and, realizing what had just happened, they both suddenly laughed.

“Don’t just move when I’m trying to do something!”, Nia scolded her with a wide grin.

Mòrag’s lips curved into an amused smile. “Don’t you know that it is standard procedure to watch what you’re doing?”

“Oh, just… shut up, you’re one to talk.”, Nia replied with a pout.

Mòrag chuckled at this. “No choice but to try again then.”, she said and cupped Nia’s face in her hands.

The blade blushed furiously when Mòrag leaned down… and kissed her on the forehead.

The expression of pure shock and disappointment on Nia’s face were priceless. Mòrag couldn’t wipe the smirk off her face.

“That it?!”, Nia complained.

“Why yes, just enough to make up for my unsightly behaviour.”, Mòrag replied and placed her hands behind her back.

Mòrag’s smile was smug and charming at the same time. Nia decided she had had enough of this silly little game. She grabbed Mòrag by her tie’s knot, pulled her down and finally kissed her on the lips.

Mòrag needed a moment to process what had just happened, but by the time she did Nia had retreated again and stared at her with a frown and very red cheeks. “T-that’s how you do it.”, she said and crossed her arms.

“I-I see…”Mòrag’s cheeks and ears felt as if they were on fire. “That was a… rather short demonstration, I’m not sure if I got all the details right…”, she mumbled, trying hard to sound professional and failing miserably.

Nia glanced sideways. “Oh, um… guess there is only”, Mòrag placed her hands on Nia’s face, causing her to falter for a second, “one way… around that…”, the Gormotti replied slowly and in the moment after, Mòrag leaned down and kissed her gently.

Nia reciprocated the kiss softly, this time savouring the touch of Mòrag’s lips on hers. She pressed herself against the other woman, having waited for so long for such an opportunity, never really knowing if Mòrag would ever feel the same for her. But she did and the tender kiss they shared was more than enough confirmation. Nia felt herself melting away when Mòrag pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her harder than before.


	4. Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group gets together for breakfast the next day and to discuss certain events from the night before...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a fun little bonus. Initially I deemed the story finished with the last chapter but Ikasury gave me some great ideas for this scene, especially the idea of Tora's *coughs* notes *coughs*

Next day’s breakfast was… interesting.

Mòrag had arranged for everyone to eat in Hardhaigh Palace’s dining hall, usually reserved for mealtimes with very important external guests. Food was plentiful and ranged from simple cereal and fruit up to fried eggs, bacon and other warm cuisine.

When she and Nia entered the room, actually quite early on because none of them got much sleep last night, they were surprised to find all of their friends, their blades and even Niall himself already seated by the table.

Everyone stared at them when they entered.

The two of them stopped in their tracks, unsure how to interpret the looks directed at them.

“Oh, look who’s arriving together at breakfast~”, Pandoria commented with a sly grin.

Nia stared flatly at her. “We just happened to meet on the way here!”, she said defensively.

“Suuure…”

Nia glared at her and went down to sit next to Dromarch, while Mòrag took a seat next to Brighid who was sitting at Dromarch’s other side. Nia grabbed whatever food was nearby, ironically it being her favourite Orange Cream Paratha, which she was now _sure_ wasn’t served by any mere chance, while Mòrag filled herself a cup of coffee.

The blue flame blade hid a smile behind her hand. “Dromarch, didn’t you mention that Nia didn’t return to your quarters yesterday night?”

This caused both their drivers to stop whatever they had been doing. Nia almost chocked, while Mòrag’s hand just wavered slightly and only almost missed the cup.

The Gormotti just stared at her blade, hoping to silence him, but it was too late. The fact alone that Brighid had spoken those words had already been enough confirmation for the others.

“Oho~” Mythra raised her eyebrows suggestively. “Pray tell, Nia, where have you been the night?”

Nia scowled at her. “That’s none of your damn business!”

“Oh, Nia, you should know by now that you aren’t fooling anyone with your demeanour.”, Pandoria added, pushing her glasses back a bit. She leaned over the table, eyeing the Gormotti suggestively. “So?”

Nia took an angry bite out of her paratha. “How ‘bout you mind your own damn business?”, she replied indignantly. There was only so much they could do if she just denied whatever insinuations they were trying to throw at her.

Mòrag just drank her coffee without commenting on anything.

That was, until Niall spoke up: “Dear sister, I believe you left the celebration yesterday after midnight without telling anyone.”, he noted. “The Grand Marshal was under the impression you would return to continue your conversation. Imagine my surprise when he came to me, asking for your whereabouts.”

Mòrag stopped in her tracks, neither looking up nor around.

Nia stared at her and noticed a faint blush and then she looked to Niall, who only smiled _very_ politely. One of her Gormotti ears caught Brighid chuckling subtly.

“M-my apologies, Niall… I… I just went out to get a breath of fresh air and didn’t notice…”

“Oh, who are you kidding?!” Pandoria stood up and slammed her flat hands on the table, causing Mòrag and Nia to flinch. “We know _exactly_ what happened yesterday!”

Rex blinked confused. “We do?”

Next to him, Pyra gave a puzzled smile, also not exactly sure what was going on right now.

“Ugh, this is almost as painful to watch as the two of them tiptoeing around each other yesterday night.”, Mythra commented with an exasperated sigh.

Nia’s ears perked up. “Wait, what?!” When the words sank in and she actually realized what both Mythra and Pandoria were getting at, her cheeks turned a deep red and her eyes widened. “Were you spying on us?!”

Tora raised one of his wings. “Research.”, he answered with a smug smile.

Nia stared at him, horrified. “You too?!”

Mòrag almost didn’t dare ask: “What… research?”

Tora turned his attention to the Special Inquisitor with a happy face. “Very glad friend asked!”  He then proceeded to pull out a book from one of his overall pockets, which was comically bigger than the actual pocket and made everyone at the table wonder how he had actually fit it in there. Tora slammed the book on the table and everyone bended over to take a look.

The title read in scrawly handwriting: How to Train Gormotti Flesh Eater.

“W-what _is_ this?”, Pyra asked, appearing shocked and surprised all the same.

Tora grinned. “Living with Nia very hard! Had to take notes to make sure Nia won’t flay Tora alive.”, he opened the book, and revealed a very detailed index covering things from natural habitat, diet and even sleeping patterns up to a section which may have read as “mating”, but was hard to tell thanks to his terrible handwriting. Nia hoped to the Architect that it did _not_ say mating. For her own and Tora’s sake.

Tora flipped through the book. “Tora wrote everything down: Favourite foods are Orange Cream Paratha and Snowbaby Potato Salad, seems to prefer salad when in blade form.”, he told them while he read his notes. “Always good to give Nia sweets when angry.”

Nia’s ears were perked up straight, her fur standing on its ends.

Tora just continued his merry way through the book. “Nia sore loser. Good at board games but gets very offended when Nia loses. Best have food at hand after game. May otherwise sulk for whole day.”

“O-oi, that was only once!”, Nia shouted. “And you _cheated_!”

“Food still made everything better.”, Tora replied with a shrug. “This may be interesting for Mòrag: Nia happiest when sleeps in pile of pillows. Likes own space very cosy and a bit untidy. Always hugs a pillow when sleeps. Seems to help Nia sleep better.”

Nia’s mouth was wide agape. She was too mortified to reply to any of this.

There was a smile tugging at Mòrag’s lips now. She glanced over to Nia and then returned her attention to her breakfast. “Oh, I’ve noticed that already.”, she replied amusedly as she cut her omelette. “It doesn’t have to be a pillow by the way.”

Nia snapped her head at the Special Inquisitor. “Mòrag!”

“Oh.”, Tora made and pulled a pen out. “Mòrag good substitute for pillow, will immediately add.”, he announced and added the new information to his notes. Nia watched on in horror.

“Hey, Tora what’s this last section?”, Pandoria asked intrigued and pushed her glasses back a bit.

“This Tora wrote to make sense of Nia behaviour when talking about Mòrag.”, the Nopon explained. “Always seemed out of character when talked about Mòrag. All smiley, very soft eyes, always good mood on letter days.”

“Oh, Nia.”, Pyra seemed touched. “That is so sweet.”

“ _Very_ out of character.” was Zeke’s only comment as he leaned back in his chair.

“Not when ask Nia. If Nia is asked about Mòrag and feelings for her Nia always get angry and hissy. Has almost stabbed Tora multiple times over that!”

“Maybe masterpon should bridle tongue when Nia makes food…”, Poppi just said with a flat sideways stare towards her driver.

Mythra laughed. “Now _that_ is the Nia I know!”

Suddenly, Niall chuckled. Everyone stopped in their tracks to look at the young emperor, even Mòrag herself seemed surprised.  
“Mòrag behaved very similar. One could see that she would be in an especially good mood on certain days or when she told me about her travels with your group…” His blue eyes went from his sister to Nia. “Now I realize that those recollections always mentioned a certain Gormotti driver.”

“And if asked about the content of the letters Lady Mòrag would always hide them and claim they were nothing but official matters…”, Brighid added to the tale with a smile. “Too bad she couldn’t hide the red on her cheeks.”

This left everyone to look at Mòrag, who was now just staring at the table, face flushed and unable to say another word. Nia couldn’t help but smile softly. So Mòrag had harboured those feelings for her for quite some time now too…

Noticing that smile, Mythra just grinned. “You guys are so adorable.”

Nia glared at her. “Just shut it.”

“My dear Tora.”, Niall then said and looked at the Nopon. “May I borrow this book? Considering my sister’s… aptitude for such matters I think it would be wise to have a copy of your notes around.”, he pulled it slowly towards his place.

Mòrag had a most indignant look on her face now. “I will not need this!”  
  
“And stop reading it!!”, Nia yelled.

Niall gave her a smile, but he didn’t comment on her words. “What does it say here? Nia not very good in riding new invention. Tora sure it works, Nia just has to try harder.”, he turned a few pages back: “Lila tried new laundry drying technique. Unfortunately shrank Nia’s clothes. Dadapon has to make few adjustments.”

Nia blinked once, then her ears twitched dangerously. She slowly turned towards the Nopon, who seemed suddenly very uncomfortable. “Did you make me one of your test subjects?”, she asked, a threatening glint in her eyes.

Tora was sweating. “N-Nia usually not have anything better to do…”  
  
“ARE YOU SHITTING ME?!” Nia was on the table now, intent on strangling Tora. The only thing holding her back was Dromarch, who had grabbed her by her suit with his mouth and tried to drag her back into her chair.

“Oh my.”, Niall said, despite his rather unfazed expression at the behaviour of his guests.

Mythra, Zeke and Pandoria just watched on curiously, wondering whether Dromarch’s endurance would outlast Nia’s anger. Brighid watched all this with an amused expression, while her driver, now free of the unwanted attention, just went back to eating her breakfast. Poppi still seemed undecided on whether to come to her driver’s aid or not.

Rex and Pyra on the other hand did not pay any attention to the commotion and took the book towards their side of the table and skimmed curiously through the pages. “Tora, what is all this?”, the boy asked. “Day 1: Nia sad. Tora got tasty sausages, but did not help.”, he read aloud.

“Probably just more science experiments…!”, Nia growled, while she tried to reach the Nopon with her hands.

“Day 3: Nia still sad. Think misses other friends. Tora and Poppi put on small comedy show, Nia smiled but still sad afterwards.”, Rex continued reading.

The Gormotti blinked when she heard that. Wait. The only time they pulled such a stupid comedy duo act… It had been right after she and Dromarch had moved in with them. It had been bad. But so bad that it had chased away her gloomy thoughts for a little while.

“Day 7: Tora has feeling distraction will help. Asked Nia to get mechanical parts from market. Nia returned with smile and idea to build own shelf.

Day 8: Nia busy. No frowny face all day. Tora glad. Will find more distractions.”

Rex and Pyra looked towards Nia, who had stopped trying to get a hold of Tora.

“You… all those stupid inventions you asked me to try out…”, Nia began.

Tora only smiled at her.

“And here I thought you were just trying to get on my nerves.” The Gormotti smiled softly and sat down properly again.

Rex frowned while he skipped to the last entry of the sort: “Day 213: Nia finally kiss Mòrag! About time! Nia big idiot when comes to love. Never thought would actually happen.”

He looked around the table and found most of his friends crossing their arms and agreeing with a nod.

This time Dromarch didn’t bother to hold his driver back.


End file.
